Today, the main German news outlets have a short blurb about a hike of another fee that makes up some of the electricity bill in the country.
We are talking about the "levy for grid charges to large users", which is not to be confused with the widely known "renewable energy" surcharge.
The "levy for grid charges to large users" is another example of German government creativity in the area of making individual consumers pay for subsidies without ever calling something a "tax".
The sole purpose of this fee is to reduce the power bills of large consumers of electricity, like steel plants, meat processing plants, hospitals, insurance companies, fast food joints, banks...wait....fast food establishments and banks?
In 2017, private consumers and small businesses - or everybody not powerful enough to get on the list of over 4400 eligible organizations - will pay more than 1.1 billion Euros for power grid expansion and maintenance to benefit these "large users".
The kW/h amount of this fee is going up from 0378 to 0.388 Euro cents. The renewables fee increases from 6.354 to 6.88 Euro cents per kW/h.
Of course, large users also pay either no or a reduced amount of the renewables fee.
That's only fair, right? Maybe, the big consumers think, if I don't have to pay one fee, why should I pay another?
Have a look at the Clean Energy Wire page on German power bills for more fun surcharges and levies.
Various court challenges of the renewables fee as well as the "levy for grid charges to large users" have been successful in the past.
The result?
The government changed the law and continued to levy the surcharges.
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