According to Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke, Brandenburg is exploring the possibility of a common electricity price zone with regions in neighboring Poland. “Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg, parts of Lower Saxony are examining whether closer cooperation across borders in Europe, in this case with Denmark, is possible,” said Woidke after a meeting with the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Paweł Jarosław Gancarz. “We are in the process of examining this with Polish regions too.” But that is in its very early stages.
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The head of government can imagine that the model will have an effect on consumers. “That would of course also have an impact on electricity prices, namely lower electricity prices in Brandenburg too,” he said. It is necessary to focus more on energy security and the use of renewable energies within the European framework.
IHK for electricity zone of northern countries with western Denmark
The Schleswig-Holstein Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) proposes a common electricity zone for Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg with Western Denmark. According to the IHK, the model offers favorable conditions for the economic production and marketing of regionally generated electricity, which would be used more locally. Woidke also calls for greater regional use of energy so that electricity becomes cheaper.
According to the IHK, a common energy zone could reduce costs through more efficient use of energy throughout Germany and create space for additional green energies. Schleswig-Holstein’s Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) was open to this.
Debate about electricity price zone
However, the Union and the SPD have not planned any changes to the so-called electricity bidding zone in their coalition agreement. The price of electricity in Germany is uniform, but production and consumption differ. If more wind power is produced in the north than is needed or can be transported to the south via the power grid, wind turbines have to be switched off temporarily, which leads to costs.
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Last year there was another call from northern German states to reorganize the electricity system to ensure lower prices in their regions, which sparked resistance in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. There had already been discussions on this in 2022 in response to the gas crisis. It has also been discussed for some time at the EU level that Germany would have to be divided into different electricity bidding zones. According to the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), two to four zones were under discussion in 2022.
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