Electricity costs of energy intensive industries: an international comparison
The study “Electricity Costs of Energy Intensive Industries” examines, in detail, the composition of electricity prices in Germany and ten other countries: the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Denmark, Canada, the United States, China, Korea and Japan. It identifies the effects of the special regulations on the competitiveness of industrial companies in Germany on four levels of analysis. Energy prices are a key factor for the competitiveness of many German companies. To finance the energy transition, the costs of promoting renewable energy technologies in Germany are passed on to the consumer, predominantly via energy prices (i.e. electricity prices). A large number of levies as well as the electricity tax currently increase the price of electricity and thereby electricity costs of industries. In order to limit the burden, especially for energy-intensive industries, the German government has created different rules for exemptions and tariff reductions (privileges). For the same economic considerations of competitiveness, competing national economies have introduced special regulations for industrial electricity consumers. In four scenarios this study shows how changes in privileges affect the German economy in total. The results show the importance of the special equalisation scheme in the German renewable energy law. If this scheme would be abolished, the production in single companies might be shut down. In this case employment and export reductions would be expected as well as decreasing economic performance.