After a long dispute, the German government has agreed on an electricity price package to ease the burden on the economy over the next five years. The relief is to amount to more than 10 billion euros in the coming year alone. The electricity tax is to be massively reduced from the current level of around 2% to the European minimum of 0.05%. This will benefit all companies and not just those that have previously received peak load compensation.
In addition, 350 companies that are particularly exposed to international competition and suffer from high electricity prices are to receive additional aid. Among other things, the three traffic light leaders have agreed on a change to the so-called electricity price compensation, which largely reimburses the costs for the purchase of CO2 certificates. Around 350 particularly energy-intensive companies receive this compensation, for example for the steel, chlorine or paper they produce. These and other measures should make electricity prices of less than 6 cents per kWh possible from 2025. One advantage of the traffic light compromise is that it is largely compatible with EU competition law. This applies to electricity tax and electricity price compensation. This also applies to the list of around 350 companies that will benefit from the regulation. Nevertheless, the government intends to comply with the debt brake in the coming year.
