Recommendation of the B2B portal operator: Take the EEG levy into account in the economic planning of electricity costs.

Energy-intensive companies are eagerly awaiting the new EEG levy, which will be announced on 15 October 2016. While it has risen in recent years to its current value of 6.354 ct/kWh, there is still no clear trend as to where the journey is heading. The B2B portal operator enPORTAL recommends that energy buyers from SMEs take a possible increase in the levy into account when planning electricity costs from the 2017 delivery year. Until the new EEG levy is announced, enPORTAL has created a new Energy price forecast in the online portal, which calculates a realistic increase. This makes it quicker and easier for industrial and commercial customers to implement their economic planning for future electricity costs.

Taking the new EEG levy into account when purchasing energy

Industrial and commercial companies with high energy consumption that are not exempt from the levy should already take into account a possible increase in the EEG levy in their planning of future energy costs. For companies with many locations and numerous consumption points, however, this involves a lot of work. It is easier if the electricity data is completely stored in an energy portal in a cloud. enPORTAL customers also benefit from a special service: a possible increase in the EEG levy is now automatically displayed in the online portal in an Energy price forecast taken into account. Buyers can see at a glance how high electricity costs may become in subsequent years. For this purpose, the energy experts have adjusted the forecast value and realistically increased the EEG surcharge. Buyers thus already know before the online tender which costs may arise and do not have to calculate everything additionally outside the portal. As soon as the new EEG surcharge is known in October, the figure is exchanged and the new value is stored.

Energy price forecast facilitates cost planning

Many buyers do not want to wait until October to tender for electricity, but want to take advantage of favourable prices on the electricity exchange and buy for 2017 or later delivery years. But without a fixed EEG levy, it is difficult to estimate the costs correctly. "We have deliberately stored a higher but realistic value so that buyers can use our tool to have not only their consumption and contracts, but also future costs available at all times," says Rainer Otto, Managing Director of enPORTAL. The energy price forecast is already visible in the portal before an online tender is issued and helps energy buyers decide for or against the market query. The advantage is: the increase is already implied and cannot be forgotten by mistake. "With our portal, commercial energy buyers are well equipped for online energy purchasing. They no longer need to recalculate possible additional costs on their own - our forecast does that for them," says Clemens Graf von Wedel, Managing Director of enPORTAL.

EEG levy has risen sharply since 2011

The EEG levy was 3.530 ct/kWh in 2011. Since then, with the exception of 2015, the levy for the promotion of renewable energies has risen permanently to its current value of 6.354 ct/kWh. The biggest price change for companies occurred in 2013, when the EEG surcharge rose by 47 percent compared to the previous year. One year later it rose again by 18 percent, so that within two years there was a 65 percent increase. With a constant annual consumption of 5 GWh[1] electricity resulted in additional costs of 84,250 euros from 2012 to 2013 alone (see Table 1). To calculate the electricity costs, the EEG levy is multiplied by the work (in kWh). The more electricity consumed, the more expensive it ultimately becomes for energy-intensive companies.

Table 1: Change in the EEG levy has led to additional costs for electricity since 2011. Source: enportal.de

Compensate for EEG levy through favourable stock market price and competition

Many energy-intensive companies are looking for solutions to compensate for the EEG surcharge. One of these is forward-looking energy purchasing, which enables short commitment periods and intensive competition among suppliers. With enPORTAL, all electricity data is stored in a cloud, so that a tender can be carried out within a few hours if prices on the Leipzig exchange are favourable. In the process, up to 550 energy suppliers can be reached with a click. "We have customers who were able to minimise the electricity price with an online tender via our portal and thus compensate for the additional costs of the EEG surcharge," says Rainer Otto.