A new calculation formula for electricity sold to processing company OeMAG at market price is causing debate among many operators of private photovoltaic systems. The exact price at which the amount of electricity paid is compensated can only be determined retrospectively. Prices for January, February and March range from 9.63 to 5.78 cents per kilowatt hour. 100,000 PV system operators with market price contracts with OeMAG are affected.
Different price for each month
The new formula was approved by parliament in December with a two-thirds majority. This is more complicated than the previous calculation. Until the end of 2023, the OeMAG remuneration is calculated from the average of the five trading days preceding the start of the respective quarter and the electricity price quotations of the following four quarters. This average, always published by the regulatory authority E. Regulation at the beginning of the quarter, an example is that although OeMAG continues to play a role, it now creates a maximum wage limit. Depending on electricity prices in the spot market, the price OeMAG pays per kilowatt hour (kWh) will also drop to 60 percent of the market price determined by E-Control.
For the first quarter of 2023, E-Control posted a price of 9.63 cents per kWh on Wednesday. This is in OeMAG's price range of 5.78 to 9.63 cents. The actual wage amount depends on the spot market and is determined and published monthly by OeMAG. This change means that each month of the respective quarter will have a different price within the price range. The costs of balancing energy remain constant; These will be deducted by OeMAG as before.
“Time's Up”
In a Facebook group where owners of private photovoltaic systems exchange ideas, one calculated what the average day-ahead price for the Apex spot would be for December 2023; So that's 6.9 cents. However, this does not take into account the weight based on the volume marketed by OeMAG. Had the volume-weighted day-ahead price also been 6.9 cents, the lower limit would have been effective if the new formula had already been applied, and OeMAG would have 60 percent of the E-control price of 12.46 cents in the fourth quarter of 2023. , i.e. 7.48 cents paid.
On Facebook, PV owners can expect significantly lower feed-in fees. “The days of making big bucks are over,” said one user, but seven cents is still a pretty good price when you think back to pre-war Ukraine. Others, on the other hand, expect to pay five to six cents and are already thinking about switching providers. It is also recommended to increase your own consumption or look for an energy community.
Why a new formula was needed?
The new calculation formula was necessary because the OeMAG remuneration was recently significantly higher than the actual value of PV electricity on the spot market. In some cases, the PV boom leads to electricity surpluses, especially during sunny periods at lunchtime, which lowers the hourly electricity price and sometimes turns negative. On the other hand, the market price rose to 51.45 cents per kilowatt hour at the height of the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, OeMAG recorded a rush of PV system operators who switched to the processing company via feed-in to sell electricity to the state processing company at higher prices.
