Turmoil over solar systems

Energie AG cancels 20,000 customers’ PV contracts

The termination of the contracts will probably cause trouble for many customers (symbolic image).

(Bild: APA/Marijan Murat)

This will cause a stir! Energie AG Oberösterreich is terminating the PV feed-in contracts of around 20,000 customers who were previously guaranteed at least 15.73 cents per kWh. Instead, they will be offered a new tariff based on the reference market.

This step was announced by the managing directors of Energie AG Oberösterreich Vertrieb GmbH, Klaus Dorninger and Alexander Marchner, on Tuesday. For April, those affected would have received 3.12 cents with the new contract.

More and more other companies are offering dynamic tariffs, and EAG now wants to do the same, said Marchner. The new tariff is called "Team Sonne Loyal Float" and is based on the reference value for PV, which E-Control publishes every month for the previous month. A discount is deducted from the calculated market value, but this is suspended until the end of the year. The tariff is capped at a lower level, with a minimum tariff of 2 cents per kWh - provided you purchase electricity from EAG.

Those affected will receive written information
The almost 20,000 PV system owners affected will be informed in writing in the coming days that their contract will be terminated at the end of June, EAG announced. These are customers who had concluded the contract during the high-price phase in mid-2023. The terminations are considered legally watertight. In addition, there are still 6000 to 7000 customers with newer contracts who are currently receiving 4.5 cents. Their contracts will remain in place for the time being. New contracts can only be concluded according to the float tariff.

More is being produced than consumed
The consumption peak for electricity in Upper Austria is currently 1.8 GW, while the generation peak for PV will climb to 2 GW by the end of the year, the company calculated. This means that more is being produced than is being consumed. The surplus will have to be sold on the international market at market prices. There, the price fluctuates within a very short time depending on supply. "This is an issue that concerns us massively as a supplier," says Dorninger. Because the number of PV systems is increasing. Since 2023, around 3,000 photovoltaic systems have been installed in the EAG grid area every month.

Massive PV boom
The background to this is that PV systems have boomed massively since Russia's attack on Ukraine due to the geopolitical situation and high subsidies. Many have expanded on a large scale and - in the hope that this will also pay off financially - are often feeding in much more than the grids can handle. For Robert Tichler from the Energy Institute at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz, the gold-rush mood is now over, which he does not see as a negative thing at all, as he speaks of "unjustifiably high additional income" in connection with the subsidy-driven PV boom and points out that the systems would still pay for themselves quickly - perhaps now within 15 years instead of four, which is quite justifiable with a service life of 25 years, but "no longer a second household income".

New contract
The Managing Directors of Energie AG Oberösterreich Vertrieb GmbH, Klaus Dorninger and Alexander Marchner, announced the major step on Tuesday. For April, those affected would have received 3.12 cents with the new contract.