Private Charging Stations for Electric Cars to be Included in Electricity Price Cap
In order to prevent the rising energy costs from making charging electric cars at private charging stations excessively expensive, the German government has extended the electricity price cap to include charging at home wallboxes. The price cap will also apply to newly included heat pumps, and will be capped at 28 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) for part of the consumption. The law was amended to reflect these changes.
The price of 28 cents/kWh will include network and metering point fees as well as the state-imposed price components, including sales tax if the charger is billed using its own meter. If a household only has one electricity meter and a tariff is used that takes consumption times into account, then the weighted average of 28 for the low tariff and 40 cents/kWh for the high tariff will be used.
For recently connected charging points, the consumption will be determined using a consumption forecast adjusted during the year after the additional device has been registered with the network operator. This newly introduced tariff applies to consumption of up to 30,000 kWh per year and, like the other price brakes, will apply to 80 percent of the previous year’s consumption and until April 2024.
The government’s inclusion of charging points and electric heaters is aimed at supplementing the relief measures already decided on for gas and electricity customers. The electricity and gas price will be capped at 40 cents/kWh and 12 cents/kWh, respectively, for 80 percent of the predicted consumption. The price brakes will apply retrospectively from January 2023, but were and will only be billed for the first time in March.
Although not explicitly stated in the law, it is expected that electricity providers will continue to calculate the price brake automatically.
