A new draft budget is pending: Higher CO2 levy, no subsidies for electricity grid fees. For industry, this means rising costs for electricity and gas in an already tense situation.
The doubling of transmission grid fees from 1 January 2024 will lead to a further increase in electricity prices, which are already barely competitive, warn Germany's energy-intensive industries (EID) and the Alliance for a Fair Energy Transition (BfE).
The announced discontinuation of the state subsidy for transmission grid fees would mean an additional annual burden of around 2 billion euros for the industries, says Jörg Rothermel, Managing Director of EID, which comprises the construction materials, chemicals, glass, non-ferrous metals, paper and steel sectors. Rothermel continues: “The measures originally planned in the electricity price package would have primarily secured the status quo for our industries anyway and not brought any significant relief. Now we are experiencing a topsy-turvy world: contrary to all political promises, electricity costs are continuing to rise.”
Political solution necessary
A political solution for internationally competitive electricity prices remains necessary in order to survive in the global competition between locations and to manage the transformation to climate-neutral production. This also includes the stabilisation of grid fees. The German government must continue to tackle this urgent task with great vigour.
The energy-intensive industries in Germany (EID) employ around 880,000 people - or 15 percent of the manufacturing sector's workforce. Every job in energy-intensive basic material production secures around two jobs in other branches of industry and in the service sector. The EID includes: Bundesverband Baustoffe, Die Papierindustrie e.V., Bundesverband Glasindustrie, WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle, Verband der Chemischen Industrie, Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl.
Many companies are feared to go out of business
There is nothing left of the energy price relief for small and medium-sized enterprises, explains the “Bündnis faire Energiewende” (BfE). At the end of another difficult year, it is further away than ever from a fair energy transition.
Christoph René Holler, spokesperson for the BfE: “Now the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor and the Finance Minister have also buried all hopes that medium-sized industry will be able to produce competitively in Germany. If the members of the Bundestag from the governing parties accept this without objection, they are heralding the end for industrial companies in their constituencies many times over. We call on them to explain to local companies and workforces why they are carrying out the repair of an unconstitutional budget on the backs of companies and employees.”
