Electricity surcharge: curse or blessing for the electricity price?

Hello everyone,

I recently read about the planned electricity levy, which was introduced by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, under the leadership of Robert Habeck. It seems that the idea is to redistribute the costs of network charges, which have so far been borne by consumers, onto the levy. This is supposed to relieve electricity prices, especially for private households. However, I wonder whether this measure will actually have the desired effect or whether it is only a short-term solution that could cause other difficulties in the long run? What do you think, is the electricity levy more of a curse or a blessing for our electricity price? What experiences have you had so far when similar measures were taken? Looking forward to your opinions!

Best regards!

The infrastructure in Germany is hopelessly outdated and completely run down. The power grids are not able to cope with the new conditions. According to various opinions, the expansion of the grid is supposed to cost around 700 billion. Without a drastic increase in grid fees, i.e. ultimately in the electricity price, this cannot be financed.

No one should fool themselves about that. We also have enormous cost increases for fossil fuels. Now some people might say that this is not true at all. Maybe not at the moment. But what if our American friends, with a D. Trump as the new president, will no longer be so friendly to us.

Rising electricity price ahead.

I read today that VW alone has 400 billion in debts on its balance sheet. That is gigantic.

Today I am not sure whether the German industry will survive the shortage of raw materials and cheap energy as well as the lack of innovative power.

The expansion of solar energy currently often fails due to a lack of grid capacity. I was at a farmer’s place a few days ago. He wanted to have a 100 kWp system installed on his roof. It doesn’t work because there is no feed-in point for this capacity. A maximum of 30 kWp is possible and even then he still has to lay 300 m of underground cable.

It will not get cheaper. That should be clear to everyone. This is the price you pay when trying to save the world. However, we cannot do it alone… Energy will continue to become more expensive. Therefore, the only help is to consume less and, if possible, [Photovoltaik].

I read today that VW alone has 400 billion in debt on its balance sheet. That is gigantic.

And is that relevant to the high electricity costs? And what do the 400 billion actually mean – what kind of debts are they (much comes from the financial sector, VW is very strong in leasing and car financing – corresponding loan agreements and inflows are opposite that)? After all, there is also 200 billion in equity and 27 billion profit in 2023. If anything, don’t just throw in numbers unrelated to the topic without any evaluation. Oh yes. By the way, Apple also has about 300 billion in debt, but only 62 billion in equity. So Apple is actually much worse off than VW. Or maybe not?

Looking forward to your opinions!

It doesn’t matter at all what politics come up with to finance the urgently needed grid expansion. There is no way around the fact that it will become more expensive for the consumer.

Therefore, the only help is to consume less and, if possible, use photovoltaics.

That’s how it is.

The infrastructure in Germany is hopelessly outdated and running completely to wear and tear. (...)

Yep. But above all, the Boomer generation has to take the blame for that. At the latest in the 90s, the renovation of bridges, routes, etc. should have been started. That didn’t happen. Now we have the mess because we don’t have the capacity to handle thousands of projects simultaneously. But you really can’t blame the generation of Habeck and Baerbock (and me) for that. Because "we" are now tackling all of that which "you" have neglected all these years...

The problem is that much has been sunk into social issues or elsewhere in the world. If, for example, the vehicle tax were used for a specific purpose, we would have the best roads… We have a spending problem. We cannot afford the welfare state in its current form. But many want the state to regulate everything and take responsibility for everything. The political attempt to force people into e-mobility and heat pumps can be blamed on the current government.