German industry should produce according to weather conditions: Habeck’s plan causes horror

If Economics Minister Robert Habeck has his way, the weather will decide when companies should produce energy-intensive products. The economy is outraged and is threatening to move away.

Several business representatives have spoken out against the federal government's plans to adapt the existing network fee discounts to the current daily supply of so-called renewable energies. The current regulation provides for large companies with more than 7,000 production hours per year to be rewarded with an average discount of 80 percent on network fees. From 2026, the federal government is instead planning, among other things, reduced fees for companies that reduce their production when there is a lack of electricity from solar and wind power. In the event of an oversupply, however, increased consumption will be rewarded.

In a letter to Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) and the head of the Federal Network Agency Klaus Müller, which was made available to the Welt , the CDU Economic Council spoke of a "devastating" signal. "This concerns entire sectors that make up the industrial core and DNA of our business location," warned Economic Council Chair Astrid Hamker and Secretary General Wolfgang Steiger in the letter. Adaptation would either be technically impossible or would lead to such poor utilization of the machinery that German companies would be "hopelessly inferior" to European competition due to the high unit costs.

Federal Network Agency defends Habeck's network fee plans
The chairman of the Chemical Parks Association in the VCI chemical association, Christof Günther, warned the newspaper of a possible fivefold increase in network charges: "Many would then no longer be able to produce in Germany." Chemical plants are generally capital-intensive and require a capacity utilization of at least 80 percent to be profitable. The managing director of the aluminum group Speira, Volker Backs, agreed. "Our companies have been working around the clock every day, because that is the only way we can remain internationally competitive with our unit costs."

The Federal Network Agency rejected the accusations of the entrepreneurs and the CDU Economic Council. "Inflexible purchasing behavior is increasingly disadvantageous to the economy as a whole and can hinder the integration of renewable energies into the electricity market," a spokesman told Die Welt . The network fee discount for large consumers, which the agency calls "baseload privileges," has largely lost its justification in the "changed energy industry framework" and creates "wrong incentives." At the same time, the new regulation should not "overburden the end consumer." How this is supposed to happen remains unclear.

Source: Junge Freiheit