The results of the second tender for wind-onshore were less highly anticipated than in the first tender in May 2017. After the significant dominance of citizen energy companies and the surprising low price level of 5.78 cent/kWh (highest approved bid), a similar result was expected for the second tender. The market participants were not “disappointed”.
The second tender1 was oversubscribed by a factor of 2.8 (2,927 MW bids). Almost 84 per cent of the bidders were citizen energy companies. In the case of the successful bids, the quota of was at 90 per cent. They will receive the highest approved bid of 4.29 cent/kWh. Only roughly 10 per cent (7 out of 67) of the regular participants received an approval of their bids. At 4.28 cent/kWh, the average call-up result is once again significantly lower than in the first round. For many market participants at least this strong degression was unexpected.
The consequences of this disproportionately high proportion of citizens’ energy companies were heatedly discussed by the industry directly after the publication of the first results in May 2017. For the first two tenders in 2018, the conditions for citizen energy companies were, therefore, amended as followed:
Table 1: Tender conditions for citizen energy companies from 2018 on (source: Energy Brainpool)
For the successful citizen energy companies’ projects, it will be shown how many and, above all, when they can actually be realised. So far, the Federal Network Agency has not been able to find any evidences that indicate that legal requirements have been violated by citizen energy companies’ approved bids2.
For all participants, the result of this tender clearly shows the benchmark for all future wind projects. From 2018 on, the maximum permitted bid value (currently 7 cents/kWh) will be set at 108 per cent of the average of the highest approved bids of the previous three auctions. Taking into account the first two tenders, this would be 5.43 cent/kWh. Project developers, operators, banks and plant constructors must now assess how projects can still be planned and constructed under these conditions.
