Electricity labeling

Under current labeling refers to the legally prescribed information to end users of electricity over its generation. It includes the proportional distribution of the energy sources from which the electricity is generated, which is delivered to the end consumer. The list of these proportions is also called the electricity mix and can refer to a specific product as well as to the electricity mix of a supplier. The electricity labeling of individual suppliers must be compared with the national average in the publication.

Legal situation

Legal situation in the EU

The EU Directive 2009/72 / EC (Internal Electricity Market Directive) prescribes labeling for the end user. According to Art. 3 No. 9 a) the mix of the previous year must be labeled in a way that is clearly comparable at national level, according to Art. 3 No. 9) information about the environmental impact (at least CO ₂ emissions and radioactive waste ) must be provided of the electricity generated from the supplier's overall energy mix are made publicly available.

Legal situation in Germany

In Germany, the legal framework for electricity labeling is in Section 42 of the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) for the electricity supplied and in accordance with Section 54 of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2012), now in Section 78 of the EEG 2017, for the compulsory portion of the amount subsidized under the EEG Current regulated. The EU Directive 2009/72 / EC was thus implemented. The electricity supplier must indicate the electricity labeling for the end consumer (referred to in law as the end consumer ) on the annual electricity bill and on all advertising materials. If the electricity supplier's electricity mix also includes directly marketed renewable energies (i.e. no EEG electricity), he must use certificates of origin and validate them at the Federal Environment Agency . According to Section 66 (9) EEG 2012 and Section 118 (10) EnWG (old version), this obligation has been in force since the date when the register of proof of origin (HKNR) was put into operation in the Federal Environment Agency on January 1, 2013. This means that the electricity bill will be changed to include the information according to Section 42 EnWG by November 2014 at the latest. The electricity labeling must be updated to the values of the previous year no later than November 1st of each year.

According to § 42 No. 2 EnWG, the information must be presented in an appropriate size in a consumer-friendly manner and graphically visualized. This information, especially about the environmental impact, enables electricity customers to assess the “quality” of electricity production. The following data must be determined and published:

the company's electricity mix ( dealer mix , also called supplier mix ), which summarizes all of the dealer's customers who are end consumers. If a special product is offered with a different mix of energy sources ( product mix , e.g. "100% hydropower"), the proportion of the individual energy sources must also be specified for this product and also for the remaining energy source mix.

Information on environmental impacts per kilowatt hour . Carbon dioxide emissions are determined system-specifically. The amount of radioactive waste for electricity from nuclear power plants is calculated using the nationwide uniform factor of 0.0027 g / kWh.

nationwide average values for all information so that a comparison is possible

For electricity of unknown origin, also known as gray electricity , the following applies in accordance with Section 42 (4) EnWG: “ For electricity quantities that cannot be clearly assigned to one of the energy carriers listed in paragraph 1 number 1 on the generation side , the ENTSO-E energy carrier mix for Germany is deducted based on the shares of electricity from renewable energies to be reported in accordance with paragraph 5 numbers 1 and 2. As far as possible with reasonable effort, the ENTSO-E-Mix must be adjusted before it is used to such an extent that other double counting of electricity quantities is avoided. "

The labeling of the sources only relates to the supplier mix, but not to the balancing energy and the allocated control energy , which the providers have no influence on. This means that even if a customer buys 100% hydropower, he also pays for gray electricity via the control energy, i.e. possibly also electricity from nuclear and coal-fired power plants.

It is the physical property of electricity to always take the shortest route. Therefore, every customer of the network operator always receives electricity from the nearest power plants via the power grid . The electricity labeling only refers to the feed-in paid for by the customer that the supplier has allocated to him in the balance sheet. Since the source of generation at the socket is no longer identifiable, the certificate of origin for electricity from renewable energies and the labeling requirement were introduced to prevent double marketing .

How it works in practice

The “Electricity Labeling” guide from the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management describes the exact process of accounting and labeling for electricity providers. So that the electricity labeling remains reliable, even if the electricity is resold several times before it reaches the end consumer, documents, so-called guarantees of origin , are issued when the electricity is generated . These confirm that a certain amount of electrical energy was produced in a certain way. The guarantees of origin are administered in central registers in every member state of the EU in order to prevent the same amount of energy generated from being sold more than once. The Federal Environment Agency is responsible for issuing guarantees of origin for electricity generated in Germany from renewable energies as well as transferring guarantees of origin abroad (export) and from abroad (import) and voiding guarantees of origin that are used for electricity labeling. If the Federal Environment Agency has doubts about the correctness, reliability or veracity of the certificate of origin from abroad, it can refuse recognition and import. This electronic register is comparable to an online banking system. Register users log in via an online portal and manage their guarantees of origin via an account view. The Federal Environment Agency manages the entire life cycle of the certificate of origin in the register of proof of origin (HKNR). It issues the guarantees of origin, transfers, imports, exports and validates them.

When the certificate of origin is sold, the Federal Environment Agency transfers it to the buyer's account. The Federal Environment Agency invalidates guarantees of origin for electricity supply companies that supply electricity to consumers. After the cancellation, guarantees of origin cannot be traded or used in any other way. The end consumer and electricity customer cannot validate guarantees of origin themselves, electricity customers are not register participants.

In countries with EU-compliant electricity labeling, electricity providers must use guarantees of origin for electricity from renewable sources, which must be canceled for this purpose. The correctness of the electricity labeling for renewable energies is checked by the certificate of origin at the Federal Environment Agency.

Values in Germany

In 2017, fossil fuels contributed around 50% to gross electricity generation, while the other half came from renewable sources and nuclear energy. Lignite accounted for the largest share of electricity generation (22.6%), followed by wind energy (16.1%), hard coal (14.4%), natural gas (13.1%) and nuclear energy (11.6%) . Renewable energies such as wind energy, biomass , photovoltaics , hydropower and the biogenic share of household waste provided a third of the electricity

Development of the electricity mix in Germany between 1990 and 2019

In 2007, 0.9% of the electricity consumption came from older hydropower plants, but the greater part (14.2%) was subsidized under the Renewable Energy Sources Act and must be purchased by every electricity provider. Accordingly, only significantly higher values indicate a deliberately environmentally friendly purchasing policy. Electricity that is purchased on an electricity exchange must be proportionately included in the information.

The table lists the nationwide average electricity mix as well as the information from the five largest energy suppliers and the four largest independent green electricity providers (date of origin of the data is specified individually); It should be noted that the values of individual suppliers represent the average for sales and not for the electricity generated by these suppliers (see also section Criticism).

Electricity mix 2017: gross electricity generation by energy source in Germany

2012	average	E.ON		RWE		EnBW	Vattenfall Europe	EWE	LichtBlick	Greenpeace Energy	EWS	Naturstrom AG
Renewable energy sources	24.2%	33.1%		28.4%		27.2%	42.8%	26.2%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Nuclear energy	17.1%	21.2%		12.7%		32.2%	3.0%	19.7%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Fossil energy sources	58.6%	45.7%		58.9%		40.6%	54.2%	54.2%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Radioactive waste ( mg / kWh )	0.5	0.6		0.3		0.9	0.1	0.5	0	0	0	0
CO ₂ emissions (g / kWh)	522	489		659		336	447	441	0	0	0	0
2013	average	E.ON		RWE		EnBW	Vattenfall	EWE	LichtBlick	Greenpeace Energy	EWS	Naturstrom AG
Renewable energy sources	25.8%	35.9%		30.8%		30.7%	43.6%	28.8%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Nuclear energy	16.6%	21.7%		12.8%		30.2%	3.4%	19.1%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Fossil energy sources	57.5%	42.4%		56.5%		39.0%	53.0%	52.1%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Radioactive waste ( mg / kWh )	0.4	0.6		0.3		0.8	0.1	0.5	0	0	0	0
CO ₂ emissions (g / kWh)	511	372		635		331	432	459	0	0	0	0
2014	average	E.ON		RWE		EnBW	Vattenfall	EWE	LichtBlick	Greenpeace Energy	EWS	Naturstrom AG
Renewable energy sources	27.9%	37.1%		34.6%		41.9%	k. A.	32.4%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Nuclear energy	16.8%	27.3%		12.5%		26.4%	k. A.	16.7%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Fossil energy sources	55.3%	35.6%		52.8%		31.7%	k. A.	50.8%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Radioactive waste ( mg / kWh )	0.5	0.7		0.3		0.7	k. A.	0.5	0	0	0	0
CO ₂ emissions (g / kWh)	508	335		600		268	k. A.	474	0	0	0	0
2015	average	E.ON	Uniper	RWE	Innogy	EnBW	Vattenfall	EWE	LichtBlick	Greenpeace Energy	EWS	Naturstrom AG
Renewable energy sources	31.8%	43.0%	33.8%	14.3%	41.9%	48.5%	46.4%	37.3%	99%	100%	100%	100%
Nuclear energy	15.4%	21.2%	26.0%	17.3%	11.8%	26.5%	4.1%	13.6%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Fossil energy sources	52.8%	35.8%	40.3%	68.2%	46.3%	25.0%	49.5%	49.1%	1 %	0%	0%	0%
Radioactive waste ( mg / kWh )	0.4	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.3	0.7	0.1	0.4	0	0	0	0
CO ₂ emissions (g / kWh)	476	321	365	792	511	204	474	435	3	0	0	0
2016	average	E.ON	Uniper	RWE	Innogy	EnBW	Vattenfall	EWE	LichtBlick	Greenpeace Energy	EWS	Naturstrom AG
Renewable energy sources	32.0%	48.5%	31.8%	19.3%	40.9%	48.4%	50.4%	35.2%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Nuclear energy	14.3%	19.0%	26.2%	15.5%	11.3%	24.3%	1.7%	10.8%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Fossil energy sources	53.7%	32.5%	41.9%	65.2%	47.8%	27.3%	47.9%	54.0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
Radioactive waste ( mg / kWh )		0.5	0.7	0.4	0.3	0.7	0.0	0.3	0	0	0	0
CO ₂ emissions (g / kWh)		281	354	676	495	223	385	432	0	0	0	0

criticism

Electricity labeling has long been required by environmental and consumer advocates and its introduction has been welcomed. However, the data does not meet all expectations and does not offer the best possible transparency.

It is partly criticized that in Germany the energy sources are summarized in only three large groups and not broken down in more detail. This means that, for example, gas-fired, highly efficient combined heat and power plants are equated with old lignite power plants, or solar plants with hydropower plants. The additional benefit of heat generation from CHP systems is not taken into account when calculating the amount of CO ₂ .

Another major point of criticism concerns the handling of energies that cannot be assigned to a specific type of generation, colloquially gray electricity , e.g. B. quantities purchased on the electricity exchange. According to the applicable regulations, the overall mix of the electricity exchange or the average mix for Germany can be assigned to these quantities. These values can deviate significantly from the generated mix and give electricity suppliers the option of arithmetically concealing the type of generation of electricity from unpopular sources (e.g. nuclear energy) by selling it on the exchange and buying it back directly. The mix specified in the electricity label does not have to match the composition of the power plants operated by the electricity provider.

In principle, the electricity mix only roughly reflects which electricity was actually delivered to the consumer. Since electricity itself cannot be stored, generation and consumption must be the same at all times. A fact correct current labeling would for all time points, the electric power plants currently produced in various types power attributed to consumers in accordance with applicable contractual relations and sum up. However, this is not the case:

The origin of the peak load electricity does not have to be declared. Instead, the provider can e.g. B. Allocate electricity from base load power plants to a customer group. Electricity that is sold as "100% hydropower" does not have to actually come from hydropower plants at all times. The electricity mix only states that the total amount of electrical energy consumed, seen over a year, is offset by a corresponding generation (equal-volume feed-in).
The electricity providers do not have to publish the amount of balancing energy purchased . Neither the amount nor the type of balancing energy are included in the electricity labeling.
The unavoidable transmission losses of around 5.7% of the electrical energy fed in are replaced by the network operators and are not taken into account in the electricity supplier's electricity mix. For example, a provider of 100% green electricity would actually have to feed 105% green electricity into the grid so that its customers do not consume electricity from conventional power plants. However, due to the current framework conditions, this is not feasible in practice.

Some experts state that the electricity labeling is a farce, because through stock exchange trading, direct purchase or sale to other traders and sales to different groups of end customers, the proportion of electricity supplied cannot be assigned to its origin or the figures shown are hypothetical.

The specification of a product mix is also criticized because this leads to major customers such as industry and the state, who do not care about the origin of the electricity, being sold cheaper "dirty" electricity, while electricity from environmentally friendly power plants is now sold separately to sensitive end customers for a surcharge on sale is. On the other hand, abolishing the product mix would also negatively affect customers of green electricity providers who offer electricity in different price ranges, since a customer from the dealer mix, who reflects the average, cannot find out exactly what electricity he is producing when paying the bill supported. It would also be feared that a ban on the product mix could easily be circumvented by setting up independent subsidiaries.

Global 2000 and Greenpeace demand that not only the energy sold to end customers is declared, but the entire amount traded. Customers should know whether their provider z. B. makes a profit by trading nuclear power. The implementation of this requirement is difficult because the exchange trading takes place anonymously, without proof of origin, and because the trading volume - in contrast to the volume actually sold - can become as large as desired through purchases and sales, i.e. H. the proportions of each individual type of generation could be manipulated almost at will through corresponding transactions.

The electricity labeling can also influence consumer behavior: some customers believe that saving electricity is no longer so important if they can be supplied with 100% hydropower or 100% green electricity. However, most providers do not have enough generation capacity to cover peak loads, or they have no power plants at all that can adapt to consumption. In this case, any additional consumption during a peak load time can de facto lead to the start-up of a conventional power plant, although none of this is declared in the electricity mix.

The type of calculation of the radioactive waste volume is not prescribed by law in Germany, but is left to the electricity providers. Their Federal Association of Energy and Water Management has agreed that only the spent fuel elements (20-25 t per nuclear power plant and year) should be included in the quantity calculation. Low and medium level radioactive waste is left out. This leads to the indication of a comparatively low amount of waste of 0.0027 g / kWh for electricity from nuclear energy. In some other European countries, much higher amounts of waste are stated due to different calculation methods. So z. B. in Great Britain a factor of 0.010 g / kWh is used, which is specified by the Department of Energy. By far the largest proportion of radioactive waste is generated after a nuclear power plant has finished operating. However, this amount of waste is not included in the factor used by the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management. So were z. B. Block A of the Gundremmingen nuclear power plant generated 13.8 billion kWh of electricity and the dismantling process produced 1,400 t of radioactive waste. This corresponds to a radioactive waste volume of 0.101 g / kWh.

The presentation of the amount of radioactive waste is also not prescribed by law in Germany. The European Commission recommends specifying the amount of radioactive waste in micrograms / kWh. However, the electricity providers grouped together in the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management have agreed to use the unit g / kWh. The numerical value is reduced by a factor of 1,000,000 and the amount of waste is visually reduced.

Electricity labeling in Austria

In 2004, Austrian electricity suppliers bought RECS certificates for 7.2 billion kWh. That corresponded to around 10% of the total Austrian electricity consumption.

In April 2012 a meeting (“Atomic Power Summit”) took place in which the Austrian Federal Government, the Austrian energy industry and two environmental organizations ( Global 2000 and Greenpeace ) took part. The two environmental organizations had previously criticized that in the past

eight of the nine state utilities traded in nuclear power, but only declared a small or no amount to their end customers
and that nuclear electricity was declared as electricity from hydropower after the purchase of corresponding electricity generation certificates, but the suppliers never obtained electricity from these hydropower plants. The certificates came mainly from Finland, Norway, Sweden and Spain (countries in which hydropower producers did not need the certificates because there was no EU-compliant electricity labeling).

In 2013 the Electricity Industry and Organization Act (ElWOG) was reformed.
Section 79 (3) of the Electricity Industry and Organization Act (ElWOG) reads:

The shares in the various primary energy sources in accordance with Paragraph 1 are to be shown as a uniform supplier mix that takes into account the electricity trader's total electricity supply to end consumers. If the primary energy sources cannot be clearly identified, for example when purchasing via electricity exchanges, these quantities must be arithmetically allocated on the basis of the current Europe-wide total supply according to ENTSO (electricity) minus their supply based on renewable energy sources.

Web links

Wiktionary: Strommix - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Directive 2003/54 / EC (PDF)on common rules for the internal market in electricity
Certificate of Origin (HKNR)
Frequently asked questions about the register of guarantees of origin (HKNR) (PDF; 0.2 MB)
Map of the electricity mix in Germany, published by the Federal Environment Agency (PDF) (1.17 MB)
Web application to determine the electricity mix for locations in Germany
German Environmental Aid proposal for transparent electricity labeling
Directive of the Austrian regulatory authority on electricity labeling - PDF
GLOBAL 2000 - figures, data, facts, background information on the subject of electricity labeling
Current electricity production in Germany and Austria, broken down into conventionally generated, wind and solar electricity
spiegel.de / ... - The Renewable Energy Sources Act requires energy suppliers to artificially reduce their CO ₂ emissions

Individual evidence

↑ EU Directive 2009/72 / EC full text (PDF)

↑ BAnz AT December 24, 2012 B6

↑ Federal Association of Energy and Water Management: “Electricity labeling” guide ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . (PDF; 2.7 MB) @1@ 2

↑ Greenpeace-energy on the current discussion about green electricity, full text ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Guideline ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the BDEW @1@ 2

↑ Federal Environment Agency: Frequently asked questions about the register of guarantees of origin (HKNR) . (PDF; 0.2 MB)

↑ Gross electricity generation in Germany from 1990 according to Energieträgern AG Energiebilanzen. Retrieved January 23, 2018.

↑ ^a ^b Federal Association of Energy and Water Management: “Electricity labeling” guide, p. 21 ( Memento of the original dated December 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 2.7 MB) @1@ 2

↑ Fuel Mix Disclosure data table ( Memento of the original dated December 9, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Department of Energy and Climate Change . (English) @1@ 2

↑ Block A - From the power reactor via the decommissioning phase to the technology center . Gundremmingen GmbH nuclear power plant .

↑ European Commission note on labeling (PDF; 37 kB)

↑ PDF ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (5 MB) @1@ 2