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StromVKG passes, bid ceiling up 41%

2 min read
10:53UTC

The Bundestag passed StromVKG on 9 July with SPD votes, raising the capacity-auction bid ceiling 41% to EUR 244,000/MW and splitting new capacity one-third north, two-thirds south.

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Key takeaway

Germany raised its capacity-auction ceiling 41%, choosing firm-supply certainty over auction price discipline.

The Bundestag passed the StromVKG capacity law in final plenary on Thursday 9 July, the CDU/CSU and SPD carrying it against AfD, The Greens and the Left 1. StromVKG, Germany's electricity capacity-payment statute, commissions 11 GW of new hydrogen-ready gas capacity, with the first 9 GW tendered in two 4.5 GW tranches on 8 September and 22 December 2026 and a network-charge surcharge of EUR 1-3bn a year from 2031.

Committee stage changed the auction economics. The bid ceiling rose from EUR 173,000/MW to EUR 244,000/MW, a 41% increase that lifts the clearing cost operators can bid into 2. A locational split now directs one-third of new capacity to northern Germany and two-thirds to the south, where industrial load concentrates and the retired nuclear fleet once anchored the grid, and barriers for battery-storage bidders were lowered. The arc ran from first reading through the 24 June Anhoerung to committee clearance, where the Greens' hydrogen-conversion motion failed .

The SPD threatened to block this law in April; it passed on 9 July with SPD votes. Raising the ceiling 41% signals that the government expected the September auction to clear thin at the old cap and chose cost certainty over price discipline. Germany is legislating dispatchable backup precisely as its merchant CCGTs whipsaw on the clean spark spread, and the capacity payment funds the firm megawatts that spread will not.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

StromVKG is a new German law, finally passed by the Bundestag on 9 July, designed to make sure Germany has enough back-up power plants for days when wind and solar are not producing much electricity. It works by paying gas-fired power plant operators in advance to have capacity ready, through a competitive auction, rather than only paying them when they actually generate power. The final version raises the maximum price the government will pay in that auction by 41%, and splits where the plants can be built: roughly a third in the north, two-thirds in the south, because the country's power grid cannot easily move electricity between the two regions. All new plants must be able to run on hydrogen by 2045.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

The 41% bid-ceiling increase responds to a structural gap exposed on 30 June, when the lowest wind week of the year combined with a heat surge to push Germany's day-ahead price to EUR 195/MWh with every incremental megawatt coming from thermal plant. Without enough dispatchable capacity cleared in advance, a renewables-heavy grid repeats that exposure on any low-wind day.

The north-south locational split addresses a separate constraint: Germany's transmission grid cannot move enough power from northern wind and southern demand centres without local generation, which is why the law now pays roughly twice as much capacity to site in the south specifically.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    A higher bid ceiling raises the network-charge surcharge German consumers eventually pay for capacity, a cost financed from 2031 estimated at EUR 1-3bn a year.

  • Meaning

    The north-south locational split formally acknowledges that Germany's grid, not just its total generation capacity, constrains supply security.

Sources:Deutscher Bundestag
Mentions:Bundestag →StromVKG →CDU/CSU →SPD →Alliance 90/The Greens →AfD →Left →Germany →Uniper →ACER →
First Reported In

Update #25 · Qatari LNG strike puts TTF back over EUR 50

Deutscher Bundestag· 10 Jul 2026
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Causes and effects
Caused by
Bundestag opens its gas-plant subsidy law debate
First reading opened the legislative arc that concluded in final passage.
Occurred 11 Jun 2026
Read story →
Capacity law faces 24 June hearing
The Anhoerung tested the draft ahead of committee clearance and final passage.
Occurred 21 Jun 2026
Read story →
StromVKG hearing keeps Sept date intact
Committee clearance set the bid-ceiling and locational-split terms that took binding form on final passage.
Occurred 24 Jun 2026
Read story →
This Event
StromVKG passes, bid ceiling up 41%
Germany chose supply certainty over auction price discipline, raising the bid ceiling 41% to fill its capacity backstop rather than bargain on cost.
Led to
Berlin's 9 GW auctions await Brussels
StromVKG's 9 July passage created the capacity-auction framework that now awaits Commission state-aid clearance.
Occurred 9 Jul 2026
Read story →
Germany bids capacity into a legal gap
StromVKG's 9 July passage with a 41% higher ceiling set up the 21 July auction opening.
Occurred 21 Jul 2026
Read story →
Different Perspectives
Cross-border power traders
Cross-border power traders
The France-Germany day-ahead spread flipped from a EUR 17.20 German premium on 1 August to a EUR 4.15 French premium on 3 August, the same day French curtailment peaked. They cannot yet attribute the flip to curtailment alone, since a like-for-like overnight comparison shows French nuclear output rising while wind fell and demand returned on the weekday step.
EDF
EDF
River-cooling limits took 7.6 GW, 12 per cent of its fleet, offline on 3 August, the highest curtailment since the heatwave began, with an easing forecast to 4.3 GW on 4 August and 3 GW after. It manages the cut as a recurring seasonal constraint, expecting it to lift with river temperature, not repair.
Gasunie
Gasunie
TTF, the Dutch hub it operates, drifted to roughly EUR 55 to 58 per MWh across the window, staying inside its recent range through both the German spark reversal and the French curtailment. It reads a flat hub price as evidence that neither event this window carried enough weight to move the fuel leg on its own.
German gas-fired generators
German gas-fired generators
Record German solar of 18,761 MW on 2 August pushed the clean spark spread to minus 18.48 EUR/MWh, a loss-making day, before it returned to plus 16.20 on 3 August. They now price dispatch against post-solar residual load rather than wind alone, since the sign flipped inside 48 hours on unchanged fuel and carbon costs.
European Commission (DG Energy)
European Commission (DG Energy)
Its implementing-measures register logged transposition notices from only Portugal and Slovakia against Wednesday's Article 94 deadline for Directive (EU) 2024/1788, with 25 states silent. It expects the register to fill only gradually, since filing routinely lags legislating and any infringement track against non-notifying states runs on a slower clock than the deadline itself.
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's LNG terminal operators
Spain's 9,145 GWh terminal inventory is the largest single stock in the EU LNG network, an option value that can reroute cargoes wherever the winter strip pays best rather than a cavern gas obligation tied to a fixed date. That flexibility matters more as Germany's cavern shortfall pushes more of the winter security question onto import infrastructure.