A new energy community is forming in the south of Salzburg. A hydroelectric power station also provides its own electricity at night.
Producing electricity using hydropower is a given for Barbara Praxmayer-Müller. In 1952, the small hydroelectric power station on the Salzburger Almkanal in the Gneis district began operations. “My family were millers and ran the Praxmayermühle on the Almkanal.” Until it closed in 2002, it was one of the last mills on the Almkanal.
Praxmayer-Müller built a new career in the trading of animal feed. What remained in operation is the hydroelectric power station on the Almkanal. “My father, Mathias Praxmayer, takes care of it and knows the power plant inside and out,” says the Gneiser. This morning, too, the 83-year-old casts a critical eye on the power plant and its mechanical function. 220,000 kilowatt hours are produced every year. This corresponds to the annual consumption of 62 households with an average consumption of 3500 kWh. “The power plant is shut down for three weeks a year – during the traditional Almabkehr in September – then maintenance work is carried out,” says Walter Müller, Barbara Praxmayer-Müller’s husband and a commercial employee at a Salzburg building society. The family’s hydroelectric power plant creates work every day. “In the morning and in the evening, dirt and branches have to be removed – this can only be done by hand with a rake,” says Walter Müller. The family ultimately sold 150,000 kilowatt hours of the 220,000 kilowatt hour production to the regional energy supplier Salzburg AG – similar to a photovoltaic system, the unused electricity was fed into the grid. The advantage of hydropower is that electricity is also produced at night and on days with little sun.
In the future, new approaches will be taken with the hydroelectric power station in Gneis: the electricity will be sold within a newly founded energy community. The chairman is Erik Schnaitl, who is also the manager of the Salzburg green electricity exchange: “We have many interested parties who would like to become part of the energy community, and with the Ökohof Feldinger and the Steinerbauer vegetable farm, two large buyers.” The aim is to have between 50 and 100 members . These act in the function of energy suppliers when they make excess energy from hydropower, solar energy (PV) or biomass available to energy community consumers, or as electricity customers.
However, the newly founded energy community also pursues another goal: In addition to energy trading, sustainability is planned. These include mobility, nutrition and space heating. “We would like to offer a car sharing model within the energy community, grow vegetables together and support each other when it comes to setting up PV systems or replacing heating systems,” says the doctor, farmer and co-founder Willi Schwarzenbacher.
The formation of energy communities became possible when the Renewable Energy Expansion Act came into force in summer 2021. According to Salzburg Netz GmbH, 54 have been founded in the state since then. Households and small commercial businesses that are grouped together in the Eichet substation can become members of Energie Salzburg Süd. The network covers the south of the city of Salzburg, the communities of Elsbethen, Gaißau, Krispl and large parts of Siezenheim. “The Sturm-Mühle hydroelectric power station in Wals-Siezenheim is also available for feed-in,” says Schnaitl.
The members of the energy community agree on the price for the kilowatt hour themselves and are therefore independent of the wholesale markets. Back to Gneis: Energy suppliers in the new energy community receive between ten and twelve cents net. In comparison: At OeMAG, the processing agency for green electricity, there will be between 5.78 and 9.63 cents per kilowatt hour in January.
Those who purchase electricity from the energy community pay 15.6 to 18 cents gross for the labor price. In comparison: a kilowatt hour costs 23.88 cents gross – pure labor price – at the energy supplier Salzburg AG. The federal government will continue to curb the high electricity costs until the end of 2024. Households will be charged twelve cents gross per kWh for the first 2,900 kilowatt hours. This low kilowatt-hour price puts the energy communities under pressure: theoretically, their members would pay less than, for example, Salzburg AG and therefore the energy community model would be even more attractive. “The federal government’s electricity price brake is slowing down the energy transition,” says Schnaitl. From Schnaitl’s point of view, selective relief for hardship cases would make more sense.
The Ministry of Climate Protection says: “The basic idea of energy communities is to produce and consume electricity together – and thus also benefit from the lower costs.” The electricity cost brake is aimed primarily at private electricity consumers and is therefore for energy communities that have their own Producing and using electricity is not really suitable. “The purpose of energy communities is not to make a profit, but rather to provide members with cheap, green electricity.”
Members of an energy community benefit from cheaper network tariffs (–28 percent) for the electricity that is distributed. The electricity levy and the renewable subsidy contribution will be permanently eliminated for energy communities. At the moment these have generally been reduced to cushion inflation.
The founders of the energy community still want to win over many members. Schwarzenbacher: “If you only go to an energy community to save a few cents, you’re in the wrong place – it’s about sustainability and the desire to become more energy independent.”
by Marco Riebler
Salzburg News
2024-01-23 00:57:46
#Electricity #price #brake #inhibits #energy #communities #Energynewsmagazines
