Grid fees or grid usage fees are the fees to be paid to the grid operator for the use of the grid. These are a component of the electricity price and correspond to the measures taken to expand and maintain the electricity grid. The laws governing the formation of network usage charges are the Energy Industry Act (EnWG) and the Electricity Network Charges Ordinance (StromNEV).
The average network charges for household customers stated by the German government for 2021 were 7.52 ct/kWh. This corresponded to a share of around 23 percent of the total electricity price. The average network charges for commercial customers were given as 6.64 ct/kWh and for industrial customers 2.67 ct/kWh.
Due to the monopoly-like structure of the electricity networks, network charges are regulated. A regulatory authority examines the costs charged on a company-specific basis and sets revenue caps. The basis for the review is the StromNEV. The calculation is carried out step by step. In the first step, the audited costs are allocated to the various cost centers; subsequently, the costs are assigned to individual cost units. These, in turn, are converted into specific annual costs based on the annual maximum load of the grid and transformer level. The g function is used to calculate the network charges from the specific annual costs. The costs of all upstream network operators are passed on to the end customer.
Grid charges vary within Germany. These differences have their origin in the different utilization of the grids, the population density of individual regions, the feed-in management costs and the age and condition or quality of the grids.
Particularly high network charges are found in Schleswig-Holstein (9.47 ct/kWh), Brandenburg (8.56 ct/kWh), Hamburg (8.45 ct/kWh) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (8.31 ct/kWh). By contrast, average network charges are lowest in Bavaria (6.8 ct/kWh), Berlin (6.4 ct/kWh) and Bremen (5.13 ct/kWh).
Battery storage systems connected to the German power grid are exempt from grid charges for an operating period of 20 years after commissioning in accordance with Section 118 (6) of the Energy Industry Act. This regulation applies for 15 years from 04.08.2011.
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