WRITTEN QUESTION E-1712/97 by Hiltrud Breyer (V) to the Commission (23 May 1997)

Subject: Electricity Grid Feed Act

The letter of 26 October 1996 from Commissioner Van Miert to Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Rexrodt, states that, in the field of wind power production, the Commission was assuming that 'in 1990 there had been a capacity of 20 MW and that the additional cost to all electricity supply companies in Germany had been between DM 500 000 and 1 million per annum'. If one accepts these figures, the additional costs arising from wind power are, at most, DM 0.0125-0.025/kWh. This calculation accords with German case law dealing with cartels and information provided by renewable energy associations. At the same time, however, this figure completely contradicts the alleged additional costs of up to DM 900 million in 2005 which have been asserted by the German energy industry and accepted by the Commission without verification (with an estimated installed wind power capacity of 4000 MW). If one carries out the calculation in the same way as the Commission, the additional costs in 2005 could not exceed DM 100-200 million for all German energy suppliers.

1. How does the Commission explain this striking discrepancy in the additional cost figures and the fact that the information supplied by the renewable energy associations, which had on a number of occasions in 1996 forwarded detailed documentation to the Commission, was not taken into account in any way or even mentioned in the letter of 26 October 1996?

2. Why does the Commission regard favourable payments for feeding electricity into the grid from renewable sources as aid, although even the Commission's Legal Service has strong doubts, taking the view that the classification of the Electricity Grid Feed Act under European law on state aid is problematic 'because there are no costs for the State and there is no fund financed by compulsory contributions'?

3. Does not an adverse assessment of the Electricity Grid Feed Act manifestly run counter to the objective of an environmentally benign energy supply as called for in the White Paper on 'An Energy Policy for the European Union' and, more strongly still, in the Green Paper on Renewable Sources of Energy (COM(96) 0576 final)?

Joint answer to Written Questions E-1708/97, E-1710/97, E-1712/97 and E-1717/97 given by Mr Papoutsis on behalf of the Commission (31 July 1997)

The Commission is not able to comment at this stage on different figures for costs and capacities of the German electricity industry. The Commission, however, wishes to confirm its commitment to promoting renewable energy sources. Given the favourable reactions to its green paper on renewable energy sources ((COM(96) 576 final. )), the Commission intends to propose further measures to promote penetration of renewables in the Union in order to achieve the proposed indicative objective of a 12% share by 2010.

Directive 96/92/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 19 December 1996 concerning common rules for the internal electricity market ((OJ L 27, 30.1.1997. )) came into force on 19 February 1997. Articles 8(3) and 11(3) explicitly offer the possibility to Member States, to give preference to electricity produced from renewables, waste or combined heat and power (CHP), at the stage of load dispatch. However, the Directive does not address the problem of financing such actions, which, following the principle of subsidiarity, will have to be solved at national level during the implementation of the Directive. The Commission will examine all proposed measures as to their compatibility with the Directive, without prejudice to relevant provisions of the EC Treaty, in particular the provisions concerning competition.

In its Resolution of 27 May 1997 on a strategy for renewable energy sources, adopted on the basis of the Commission's green paper on the same subject, the Council noted that in the framework of the liberalisation of the energy markets, a policy at the level of Member States and, within the limits of subsidiarity, at Community level, is required to improve the competitive position of renewables. The Commission intends to give further consideration to this issue, including the question of electricity feed-in laws, in the framework of the preparatory work for the establishment of a Community strategy on renewables. The Commission intends to publish its strategy in the form of a white paper and a proposal for an action plan, later in 1997, as announced in the green paper.