More digital, more transparent, more customer-oriented – the proposal for the ElWG clearly shows the direction in which the industry will develop in the coming years
Michael Strugl, President of Austrian Energy
Vienna (OTS) – At the end of last week, the assessment of the Electricity Industry Act (ElWG) ended, in which Oesterreichs Energie, the electronic industry’s interest group, also submitted a comprehensive statement. From the industry’s perspective, the proposed law offers a sustainable framework and good conditions for converting the electricity system towards renewables and integrating new market participants into the energy market. However, the e-industry still sees a need for change when it comes to topics such as digitalization or flexible network access. From the industry’s perspective, a particularly high priority is to restore legal certainty when it comes to price adjustments and to create a regulation for basic services that complies with European law.
“More digital, more transparent, more customer-oriented – the proposal for the ElWG clearly shows the direction in which the industry will develop in the coming years”
says Michael Strugl, President of Oesterreichs Energie. He emphasizes the suggestions for integrating new market participants such as aggregators, the introduction of peer-to-peer contracts and the focus on transparency and customer communication. The industry also welcomes the introduction of a performance price, which will ensure a more fair distribution of network costs in the future. In addition, it will be easier in the future to use smart meter data for network operation. However, the industry still sees a need for adjustment in individual areas.
Digitalization is essential, but time-consuming
Sufficient data is the basis for the modern electricity market, for the functioning of energy communities, accurate forecasts and new price offers. Nevertheless, the planned conversion of all smart meters to quarter-hour values and the transmission of this data would overwhelm the infrastructure in the medium term. “In the first step, we need correct data from special customers such as those who produce electricity themselves, are members of an energy community, own heat pumps or charging points or have an annual consumption of more than 10,000 kWh,” says Barbara Schmidt, Secretary General of Oesterreichs Energie, suggesting a legal claim to the quarter-hour values for special customers.
Flexible grid access for more generation plants
The e-industry welcomes the possibility of flexible network access created by the ElWG. However, the proposal does not go far enough for the industry: “PV systems only reach their peak performance for a few hours a year. It would be extremely economically unreasonable to design the network capacities for these rare peaks,” explains Schmidt. “We therefore propose limiting performance to 70 percent of maximum capacity. This means that the amount of energy fed in falls by less than 5 percent – but 40 percent more systems could be connected to the grid.”
Exempt storage and electrolyzers from network fees
In addition, storage facilities should be exempt from network fees. “In order to integrate the volatile generation from wind power plants and PV systems into our system on a large scale, we must massively expand our pumped storage power plants, battery storage and electrolysers. This requires investment incentives,” says Strugl, referring to the German storage strategy.
Legal certainty for price changes
The creation of legal certainty in customer relationships is particularly important given the developments of recent years. The industry association is currently counting more than 50 cases across Austria against electricity suppliers due to price changes. Oestereichs Energie welcomes the fact that a working group of the ministries is now working intensively on a solution. “In the interests of suppliers and in the interests of our customers, we finally need legal certainty again,” says Strugl.
Monthly invoice instead of partial payment
The planned conversion of all customers with smart meters to monthly bills for actual consumption will bring more transparency. “In order to manage this transition in the best possible way in the interests of our customers, transition periods and broad communication from all relevant players are needed. “Politicians, regulators and consumer protection organizations are just as important as the e-industry,” says Strugl.
Principles for Regulatory Authority
Due to European legal requirements, the regulatory authority is given a lot of leeway when it comes to tariff classification. “We are of the opinion that the legislature should at least provide the regulator with basic guidelines for its work so that regulation is carried out in accordance with the political goals,” says Strugl.
Finally, Strugl emphasizes the importance of the ElWG with regard to clear rules for the restructuring of the energy system and appeals to political representatives to pass the law during the current legislative period. “If the law is not passed in the next few months, we will lose at least a year. We don’t have that time,” said Strugl.
Questions & Contact:
Austria’s energy
Christian Zwittnig
Press spokesman
0043 1 50198 – 260; Mobil: 0043 676 845019260
presse@oesterreichsenergie.at
www.oesterreichsenergie.at