Electricity network fee ordinance

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basic data
Title: Ordinance on Charges
for Access to
Electricity Supply Networks
Short title: Electricity network fee ordinance
Abbreviation: StromNEV
Type: Federal Ordinance
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Commercial law
References : 752-6-3
Issued on: July 25, 2005
( BGBl. I p. 2225 )
Entry into force on: July 29, 2005
Last change by: Art. 1 Regulation of 23 December 2019
( Federal Law Gazette I, p. 2935 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		December 31, 2019
(Art. 4 of December 23, 2019)
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The Electricity Network Fee Ordinance ( StromNEV ), a German ordinance on the fees for access to electricity supply networks, regulates the determination of the network usage fees for the transmission of electricity through the networks of the electricity network operators to the consumers in the liberalized energy market. It became necessary in the course of the reformulation of the Energy Industry Act and has replaced the regulations of the association agreement on network usage charges originally set at a non-state level with a state specification.

The StromNEV came into force on July 29, 2005. The provisions of this ordinance are supplemented by the Incentive Regulation Ordinance (ARegV), which has implemented the incentive regulation applicable since January 1, 2009 .

Section 5 IV StromNEV compensation scheme

The compensation scheme

In the summer of 2011, as part of the work on the law “On measures to accelerate the expansion of electricity networks”, an optional compensation regulation was inserted into the Electricity Network Fee Ordinance (StromNEV) for the first time. This regulation serves to recognize payments by network operators to cities and municipalities to increase acceptance of the necessary expansion of the transmission network. Under certain conditions, project developers have since been able to compensate the local communities for any monetary disadvantages. Based on an agreement with the responsible project developer, this regulation enables cities or municipalities, or interest groups of cities and municipalities, to make a monetary payment of max. To be paid out 40,000 euros per kilometer of overhead line. The prerequisite for the payment is the erection of a high-voltage overhead line (380 kV) requiring planning approval on the territory of the municipality concerned, which must actually have been put into operation in accordance with Section 43 No. 1 EnWG . The project promoters can claim such a payment as part of the incentive regulation at the Federal Network Agency , so that ultimately the costs for the compensation payment are passed on via the network user charges . It is advantageous for the beneficiary municipality that the use of the funds remains in its autonomy.

criticism

The norm has been criticized in many ways. For example, the compensation raises questions of criminal, tax and constitutional law. Due to the lack of a legal obligation to apply Section 5 (4) StromNEV, municipal officials, for example, see themselves exposed to the criminal offense of accepting benefits ( 331, 333 StGB) and infidelity ( Section 266 StGB).

In addition, it is legally questionable whether and to what extent local authorities affected by the network expansion may be supported through financial incentives. Although there is no exchange of money for goodwill, the effectiveness of this payment is completely uncertain. There is also skepticism because the compensation flows entirely into the electricity network charges. This leads - albeit to a very small extent - to rising electricity prices . The main point of criticism, however, is that the compensation payment collides with the principles of the law on compensation and should have been embedded in a law instead of an ordinance .

Section 19 Special forms of network use

Individual network usage fees

Section 19 of the StromNEV is particularly well-known ; in paragraph 2 it contains conditions for atypical network use , according to which large electricity consumers can be partially exempted from network charges. On the one hand, the condition is fulfilled if the maximum load contribution of the end consumer differs in time from the annual maximum load of all withdrawals from this network or transformer level. For this reason, the network operators publish their maximum load time windows according to network levels and energy-related seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn). Based on these time windows, the measured and forecast load profiles of the end consumer can be analyzed to determine whether the conditions are met. A resolution by the Federal Network Agency , effective from January 1, 2014 , stipulates that a significant threshold for load reduction (e.g. at medium voltage at least 20 percent) and a minimum load shift of 100 kilowatts must be achieved. In this case, it is not the annual maximum output but the maximum output within the maximum load time window of the network level that is used to calculate the network usage fee. However, the network charges ultimately to be paid must be at least 20 percent of the published general network charges.

Paragraph 2 also provides for reduced individual network usage charges for large quantities. Electricity supply network operators have to offer these individual fees to end consumers if the electricity consumption at a delivery point exceeds ten gigawatt hours per year and the number of hours used is more than 7,000 hours.

§19 levy

Temporal progression of the §19 levy for the end consumer group A 'in the years 2012–2017

The resulting costs for the network operators are passed on to the other end consumers. This surcharge in accordance with Section 19 (2) StromNEV is referred to as Section 19 surcharge or Section 19 surcharge . The amount of the levy depends on the electricity consumption.

In terms of the levy, a distinction is made between three consumer groups depending on the annual electricity consumption:

  • End consumer group A ': up to and including 1,000,000 kWh (from 2016).
  • End consumer group B ': over 1,000,000 kWh (from 2015).
  • End consumer group C ': over 1,000,000 kWh (from 2015) and end consumer belongs to rail transport or manufacturing with an electricity cost share of more than 4%.

The following table and the diagram show the amount of the contribution over the years.

Development of the §19 surcharge in cents / kWh
year 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
End consumer group A ' 0.151 0.329 0.192 0.237 0.378 0.388
End consumer group B ' 0.050 0.050 0.050 0.050 0.050 0.050
End consumer group C ' 0.025 0.025 0.025 0.025 0.025 0.025

For the effect of the levy, see the electricity price article .

History of regulation

The Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court ruled on March 6, 2013 that the ordinance for exempting electricity-intensive companies from grid costs is void. A complete exemption from network charges is not permitted for reasons of equality. A non-discriminatory and cost-related regulation of network charges is also required under European law.

On the same day, the EU Competition Commission under Joaquín Almunia opened a state aid investigation against the scheme. Its opening report assumes that the possible exemption from network charges in accordance with Section 19 (2) sentence 2 StromNEV is state aid for energy-intensive companies. Furthermore, it holds out the prospect that such aid could have been granted with the introduction of the network charge exemption for energy-intensive companies in 2001, before the introduction of the §19 surcharge for the end consumer. As soon as the opening report was published in the Official Journal of the EU, the federal government and all parties concerned had one month to comment. At the end of April 2013 this had not yet happened.

Delimitation: A similar EU procedure should be initiated in July 2013 against the exemption of electricity-intensive companies from the EEG surcharge , but it was postponed until after the 2013 federal election and finally opened in December 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Act on Measures to Accelerate the Expansion of the Electricity Networks
  2. ↑ a b BT-Drucksache 17/6073 (PDF) p. 35, website of the German Bundestag, accessed on 25 August 2016.
  3. ↑ Ulrich Scheele: Power grids as NIMBY goods? Compensation solutions to improve the acceptance of energy infrastructures . In: InfrastrukturRecht , 2012, issue 11, pp. 247–250
  4. ↑ Thomas Recht, Tobias Montag: Help shape the network expansion. (PDF) Study by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation , 2014, p. 36.
  5. ↑ Invana Mikesic, Boris Strauch: Stromautobahnen: End of the planning on the slow lane ? Constitutional assessment of some aspects of the Network Expansion Acceleration Act . In: Law of the Energy Industry 2011, Issue 10, pp. 347–353.
  6. ↑ Bernd Andresen: Network expansion - compensation payments to municipalities for overhead lines . 2013; Retrieved August 25, 2016
  7. ↑ Volker Lüdemann, Juliette Große Gehling: consent for money? In: Journal for the entire law of the energy industry (EnWZ), 2016, pp. 147–153.
  8. ↑ Paragraph 19-surcharge. In: Stromlexikon - Electricity terms simply explained. CHECK24 comparison portal, accessed on December 22, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Network transparency: surcharge according to §19 para. 2 StromNEV
  10. ↑ Press release: Network cost exemption for companies is void. (No longer available online.) Düsseldorf Higher Regional Court, archived from the original on May 22, 2013 ; Retrieved May 3, 2013 . 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@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.olg-duesseldorf.nrw.de
  11. ↑ Opening report : Exemption from network charges for electricity-intensive companies (Section 19 StromNEV) (PDF; 103 kB) , ec.europa.eu, March 6, 2013, accessed on May 26, 2013
  12. ↑ Opening decision of the EU Commission on the aid procedure in matters of network charge exemption  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.fiw-online.de   , fiw-online.de, April 25, 2013, accessed on May 26, 2013
  13. ^ Proceedings due to EEG exemptions: Merkel intervened with the EU Commission . Spiegel Online , July 21, 2013; Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  14. ↑ State aid: Commission opens detailed examination of subsidies for electricity-intensive companies through partial exemption from the EEG surcharge. (Press release) European Commission, December 18, 2013, accessed December 25, 2013 .