Gas customers will have to prepare for slightly higher network charges on their gas bills in a few years. The Federal Network Agency presented a key points paper in Bonn that proposes new rules for calculating network fees. Every household pays network fees; they are used to cover investments and ongoing costs for network operation.
In times of energy transition, gas demand will decline in the future. The depreciation period for investments should therefore be shortened: In the next few years, network operators should be able to pass on higher costs to network fees than they are allowed to do under the currently valid rules.
The logic
There are still many gas customers, so the financial burden can be spread across many shoulders. If the current, very long-term depreciation period remained, the network operators would only be able to claim part of their costs when there were hardly any gas customers left. This could overwhelm the few remaining customers and the network operators could be left with part of their investments.
If the authority implements its proposal, gas network fees per household could increase by a single-digit euro amount per month, according to the network agency’s estimate. Nothing has been decided yet, the energy industry now has the opportunity to speak. Consumers will probably not feel the financial consequences until 2026.
The new regulations are of great importance for the energy industry. It’s not just about the gas sector, but also the electricity sector. In view of the energy transition, the need for investment in the power grids is huge – expansion, conversion and digitalization are expensive. The new set of rules is intended to answer the question of how costs can be managed.
Look at the costs
While 5.2 billion euros were invested in the German electricity grid in 2013, last year it was more than twice as much at 11.5 billion euros. It will be even more expensive in the future:
According to a rough estimate by the Network Agency, the investment requirement for the power grids could be around 450 billion euros by 2045. These costs are written off over the long term, so only a small portion of them is passed on to network fees each year.
In general, the regulatory authority is aiming to streamline the current rules. “Over the years, wage regulation has developed into a thicket of regulations comparable to tax law,” said authority boss Klaus Müller. That should be changed, the rules should be simpler and less bureaucratic.
When asked whether the new requirements will lead to a greater increase in network fees not only for gas but also for electricity, Müller said: “No, we do not expect network fees to increase as a result of these measures that we are discussing today.” Rather, they are an incentive to expand the power grid more quickly and digitize it more quickly, which could save costs.
In 2021, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ordered the Federal Republic to renew energy law and strengthen the position of the Federal Network Agency as an independent authority. Regulations set by the government that regulated the calculation of said network fees were deemed to be contrary to European law. Instead, the Federal Network Agency must now independently initiate so-called determination procedures in which it must not be politically influenced.
