German Green Surcharge Rising 15% Can’t Catch Power Nosedive
- Wholesale power prices dropped more than 20% in the last year
- Consumers electricity bills have fallen every year since 2013
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German consumers aren’t expected to flinch when regulators lift their green-power surcharge 15 percent beginning next year, according to an energy forecaster.
Even with overall inflation running at just 0.3 percent, an increase of the clean-power surcharge -- to as much as 7.3 euro cents ($0.08) a kilowatt hour from 6.35 euro cents -- will probably be overlooked on most electricity bills, according to Agora Energiewende. That’s because wholesale power rates are falling even faster and those savings will likely be passed on to consumers, the Berlin-based researcher wrote in an e-mail.