Germans Can Expect Green Power Surcharge to Fall

A green energy surcharge levied on German consumers to support renewable power generation is likely to fall next year for the first time since it was introduced in 2000 as part of the country's push to expand renewable power.

The surcharge is expected to fall to 6 euro cents ($8 dollar cents) per kilowatt hour in 2015 from 6.24 cents/kWh this year, green industry group BEE said on Wednesday.

The fee, which is added to consumers' bills, has been the caused of rising power prices for households and companies that ultimately led to wide-reaching energy reforms by the Berlin government that came into effect on Aug. 1.

The official release of next year's figure is to take place on Oct. 15 but there has been speculation in the media about potential savings for consumers resulting from the reforms that curbed incentives and set caps on green energy expansion.

"The BEE has arrived at this number on the basis of its own calculations," the Berlin-based group said in a statement. "It is good news for power customers that the EEG-charge (under the renewable law) for the first time since its introduction in 2000 is going down."

The surcharge funds feed-in tariffs for renewable power such as wind or solar energy. As a result, operators of such installations have received above-market rates to promote expansion of alternatives to fossil fuels, part of Germany's plan to create a low-carbon economy.

BEE said the decrease was not a result of the reforms but due to a well-stocked renewable revenue account due to the high level of the 2014 fee. It had risen by 18 percent year-on-year.

Weather patterns also go some way towards determining whether funds collected in the EEG accounts outpace or undercut the amount that transmission grid firms actually pay to green power producers, once their electricity is fed into the grid.

Renewable energy reached 28.5 percent of all power consumed in the country in the first half of 2014 and production costs are falling.

"Despite remaining uncertainty - on thing is clear: the times of rising EEG fees are over," BEE deputy director Harald Uphoff said. "We also expect stable fees for 2016 and 2017."

(1 US dollar = 0.7732 euro)

(Reporting by Vera Eckert. Editing by Jane Merriman)