German retail power prices fall for first time since 2000

London (Platts)--4 Sep 2015 748 am EDT/1148 GMT

* 52% of power bills are taxes, levies set by state
* Share of wholesale, distribution at just 25%
* Power bills more than doubled since 2000


The average household bill for electricity in Germany in 2015 has fallen for the first time since 2000, German utility lobby group BDEW said Thursday.

According to BDEW's annual survey, the average household with an annual consumption of 3,500 kWh now pays Eur83.76 ($93.15) per month for electricity, down 1.4% from the Eur84.99 per month in 2014, but more than double the Eur41 per month power bill back in 2000.

However, only 25% of the bill are costs the utilities can impact themselves, namely generation or wholesale power and distribution, with grid transmission fees now accounting for 23% of the average household power bill, BDEW said.

Taxes and other levies set by the state account for around 52% of the average monthly power bill with the renewables levy taking up the lion's share with around Eur18 per household each month, but an aggregated total of Eur21.8 billion for Germany's power consumers, according to BDEW statement.

German wholesale power prices have dropped to their lowest level in almost 12 years amid continued gains for renewables and falling generation costs for conventional power plants.

Year-ahead baseload power in August dropped below Eur30/MWh for the first time since 2003, Platts pricing data shows.

That compares to a price of Eur287/MWh for the average household bill in 2015, the BDEW data shows.

The so-called 'EEG-Umlage' or renewable energy levy for 2015 also dropped for the first time since it was introduced to Eur61.70/MWh as the cost for new renewable energy installations have fallen.

Renewables covered a record 27% of national power demand in 2014.

--Andreas Franke, andreas.franke@platts.com
--Edited by James Leech, james.leech@platts.com

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