Gas-fired power plants are to be used when renewable energies cannot be produced sufficiently. This is the plan of the traffic light coalition.
The federal government is planning a new levy for electricity consumers to promote new gas-fired power plants. As the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (Faz) reports, this additional burden on private and commercial customers is intended to finance around ten new gas-fired power plants with a total output of five gigawatts (GW). These power plants are intended to supply electricity in particular when renewable energies cannot be produced sufficiently. In this way, the plants are intended to contribute to security of supply.
There is no exact information yet on the amount of the new contribution. In Berlin, however, it was said that it would be a “small decimal place,” reports the “FAZ.” However, such “small decimal places” add up quickly – taxes, duties and levies already make up 27 percent of the electricity price for households.
According to “Faz”, Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) also plans to provide a total of 12.5 GW of power through plants that will initially be operated with natural gas and later with CO2-neutral green or blue hydrogen. This would require at least 25 large gas-fired power plants.
The planned investments in gas-fired power plants are part of the government's so-called power plant strategy. Since this is intended to serve as a safeguard against failure of renewable energies, power plant investments can be subsidized. Therefore, the traffic light coalition also sees a connection to the so-called capacity markets, in which not only the kilowatt hour supplied but also the power provided (capacity) is remunerated.
However, there is a discrepancy between the government's plans and the recommendations of the Federal Network Agency. According to the “Faz”, the agency considers an available capacity of 17 to 21 GW to be necessary. Despite its plans to promote new gas-fired power plants, the government still wants to stick to its goal of reducing energy system costs.
The coming weeks will now be used to publicly discuss the plans and have them approved by the EU Commission.
