"Dirty" Electricity is completely redetected in Germany to Okostrom. The dizziness has a name: RECS certificates
Four electricity companies essentially share the lucrative electricity market in Germany: EON, ENBW, RWE and Vattenfall. And they are investing in dirty electricity, over 40 new coal-fired power plants are planned. The four also want to stick to the risk nuclear energy. Many people do not want to accept that long and switch to a supposed "okostrom"-Tariff. And saving seemingly part of much money, as the consumer centers emphasize.
TELDAFAX ENERGY, electricity billy or FlexStrom are clearly priced with your OKO offers among the rates of the locals. Great, Angela’s penstrauch is thinking and changes to another electricity provider with such a OKO offer with a RECS certificate. Compared with their previous "Grunge"-Tariff saves you a Euro monthly but your electricity is really oko?
No, he is not. Mrs. Pea bush continues to get physically nuclear and coal stream delivered. Nevertheless, the electricity provider may be your yellow-brown stream "eco" to name. This makes this a system for the redecetation and concealment of the electricity origin, called RECS (Renewable Energy Certificate System).
In order to understand the dizziness, we look briefly the electricity trade of the real okostromers: three independent okostromaniaters waive in Germany deliberately on RECS: EWS Schulau, Greenpeace Energy and Natural Stream. Like all electricity providers, they must take the amount of electricity expected to their customers at the beginning of the year as "Net use" Condition, D.H. The electricity provider must can prove that he can really supply his customers over the year. At the end of the year, the electricity provider with the power plant operators expects the actually consumed amount of electricity. This network usage current is the actual time for the load profile of the customer physically fed rose.
These serious okostromant providers who expressly use no RECS certificates supply their customers with genuine okostrom: they mainly buy water bander (but also biomass, solar and wind power) that they sell to their customers further. Coal and nuclear power plants do not get a single cent for the production of the "Grunge", The change to a serious okostromer comes equal to a boycott, the money for electricity purchases directly benefits the operators of OKO power plants.
This power purchasing accounts for just under a third of the final price of around 20 cents per kilowatt-hour. About 6 cents the electricity purchase costs the electricity provider. Another third of the electricity price is on the basis of network uses on it, the last third consists of EEG, CHP, concession fees, electricity tax and sales tax. All serious providers also ensure that they receive their electricity from new plants and / or request new plants with a defined amount per kilowatt hour.
The RECS system
The RECS certification system works differently. Here, the stream is divided into two products: in the current-produced electricity and in a virtual stream in the form of RECS certificates. There is an interchanging of the labels instead. The coal and atom flow becomes okostrom, the okostrom to nuclear and coal flow. The customer who actually buy Okostrom maybe depressed, atomic and coal stream pushed.
Specifically, an environmentally friendly energy generator, such as a hydroelectric power plant, can be registered with the RECS system. RECS takes up the producer in his database. From the registration, a RECS certificate is ied for each MW / h electricity generated and kept in the database ready. The certificate is now available to the electricity trade.
Now a power handler has the possibility, "okostrom" By offering a simple trick, without truly buying Okostrom: He also buys cheap the amount of RECS certificates that corresponds to the power consumption of its supplied OKO customer. He glued his to the OKO customer "Grunge" Simply with the corresponding set of RECS certificates. It remains identical: it remains identical: it remains atomic and coal flow, but it must now redect the stream to okostrom, in our example 100% hydropower.
The environmentally friendly energy generator, the hydroelectric power plant, must, if the RECS certificate was sold, also reetitect its physically produced electricity in the same amount as he sold RECS certificates. This will be carried out according to the so-called UTCE standard, the average value of European electricity production. This is predominantly atomic and coal flow.The hydropower stream has been resetized to nuclear and coal flow and is also reversed after this newly marked quality. Thus, the labels are reversed, the OKO customer gets "Grunge" pushed.
The Stadtwerke Kassel are so procedure. Private clients think they receive okostrom and pay them. The fact is: The Stadtwerke Kassel continues to provide its customers "Grunge" and buy the corresponding amount of RECS certificates that do not prove nothing more than that somewhere in Europe the same amount of Okostrom was produced, as those purchased by the stadeworks for their customers "Grunge"-lot.
It is clearly the surretment in comparison with the egg. As a customer, I am convinced that Kafigtung is a hence deterrent and wants to buy organic eggs. In the shop, I get eggs who, as I find out later, are RECS certification (Renewable Egg Certificate System), but there is organically, more information I can not get. I learn home that I have bought Kafigeier instead of organic eggs, whose label was reversed with real bioeiriers. Because the RECS symbol on the pack only states that somewhere in Europe, the same amount of organic eggs have been created, as I bought Kafigeier. Almost my money I continued to pay for the system of Kafigung, only a fraction of my money goes to the BioEier producer.
Every normal customer has now been going to the store management of the grocery store and hug the eggs around the ears. Nevertheless, RECS-certified products call Okostrom, because the term "okostrom" is not defined, everyone may use it, uniform standards do not exist. Only the grune electricity label does not allow RECS.
Where is the money?
For RECS certificates, the operator of the RECS-certified system is just the minimum amount of additional amount achieved from the sale of the certificates. Only 0.1 to a maximum of 0.25 cents land with renewable energies, approx. 6 cents land at the nuclear and carbon trade (remainder of the electricity price is network usage, control etc., as described above). The ratio therefore amounts to 1:24 at best. Part of the money that the customer for "okostrom" on his provider, goes to regenerative energy sources, 24 parts of the money go to nuclear and carbon handler. In a very broad price of only 0.1 cents per kilowatt hour, the ratio looks even worse, here is only 1: 60. The RECS certification is a cheap inexpensive method to create electricity Grun.
Accordingly, RECs is also the preferred system for "Advancement" Renewable energies of coarse four corporations in the German electricity market because it is coupled to the sale of the old energies and they can run this long. First Chairman and Deputy of RECS Germany E.V. Are representatives of Vattenfall and E.On. Basic members of RECS Germany E.V. is the spearhead of the German environmental movement: Electrabel Deutschland AG, Energy Service AG, E.On Energie AG, EWE Naturwatt GmbH, HEW AG, RWE Trading GmbH, TUV North Environmental Protection GmbH CO. KG, TUV Rheinland / Berlin / Brandenburg GmbH, TUV Suddeutschland construction and Operations GmbH, Vattenfall Europe Trading GmbH.
RECs, of course, is not worthwhile for the coarse part of new energy systems, which are required in Germany through the EEG. Exceptions: very rough biomass power plants and hydroelectric power plants that are not required by the EEG. In the UK, a certificate system instead of a renewable energy law is used to demand regenerative energies. Result: almost zero installation at the renewable. Lobbyist associations of old energies have been trying for some time to bring the EEG into Brussel in order to replace it through a certificate system – because the addition of modern energy generation plants was stopped in Germany. In the advertising brochure of RECS Switzerland we read about this prior to the system: "Because RECs allowed a simple growing of the offer portfolio without installation."
Anyone who refers RECS certified electricity thus requires the receipt of nuclear and coal-fired power plants and prevents the energy transition. Consumers who do not support that should therefore be careful to elect energy suppliers that deliberately renounce dizziness. If (hypothetical) 100% of Germans should be supplied with RECS electricity, then the coal and nuclear power plant park had to be remained even more expanded "dirty" To have electricity that can be washed clean!
Stadtwerke Flensburg, which was originally mentioned in this article as an example, had written us an e-mail and ared that they were not provided with their OKO electricity with RECS certificates. The stream of Stadtwerke Flensburg was, so beat it and so we had took it up, "according to the OK-Power Label and the TUV Environmental Protection Certificate and not RECS-certified". However, this does not seem to be correct. The Stadtwerke Flensburg apparently offer OKO electricity with a RECS certificate, as it is also displayed by VeriVox. The OK-Power label has also been allowed this.