Speyer, March 14, 2025 – Stadtwerke Trier and Stadtwerke Speyer today presented a joint IKEM study on the regional marketing of electricity from photovoltaic systems. They are calling on legislators to create a suitable legal framework for decentralized and regional marketing models. The IKEM study concludes that such regional approaches could make the energy supply more stable and cheaper overall.
Speyer’s Lord Mayor Stefanie Seiler thanked the two municipal utilities for their commitment: “The municipal companies are doing what the big politicians are talking about. They are many steps ahead and make a significant contribution to urban development and a sustainable energy supply.”
Background: The number of private photovoltaic systems for personal use is growing continuously. The only disadvantage is that the electricity that cannot be used or stored on site at the same time is fed into the public grid and then – in accordance with legislation – sold on the energy exchange by the major transmission system operators. “It is therefore no longer considered green electricity, but electricity of unknown origin, i.e. gray electricity. The originally high-quality, regional green electricity is therefore no longer available for regional value creation,” regrets Arndt Müller, CEO of Stadtwerke Trier.
Wolfgang Bühring, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Speyer, takes a similar view: “The regionalization of electricity supply through photovoltaic and wind power plants is crucial for municipal utilities. It strengthens local value creation and increases security of supply. In order to successfully implement this model, we need to adapt the infrastructure, intensify local cooperation and further develop the legal framework for marketing electricity from renewable energies. In this way, we can make the energy supply more stable and cheaper.”
In this context, IKEM was commissioned by the two regional utilities to conduct a study examining the current legal framework. The results confirm the assessment of the two municipal utility bosses: the authors conclude that the current legal framework is still designed for the centralized marketing of electricity from photovoltaic systems. High technical requirements and costs prevent private operators of photovoltaic systems from opting for other marketing channels. As a result, they generally opt for the feed-in tariff form of marketing, in which the electricity is marketed centrally – regardless of the actual demand. However, other incentives must be created for a climate-neutral, sector-coupled energy system. Arndt Müller explains: “These could be new electricity marketing models, for example, which focus on decentralized green electricity. Or local price signals as an economic incentive to reduce grid bottlenecks and promote the use of storage systems. This will make the electricity supply much more agile and adapt to the volatile generation of renewable energy plants.”
Klaus Mindrup, former member of the German Bundestag, who was involved in the study, concludes: “Regional approaches in the electricity system can both save costs in the overall system and make the energy system more resilient – in particular by reducing dependence on energy imports.”
