German green power surcharge to ease 1.1 pct in 2015 -sources

DUESSELDORF/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's green energy surcharge will fall 1.1 percent next year, sources close to the process said on Tuesday, reflecting expectations for lower power prices for consumers after the government scaled back support for renewable power.

The surcharge under the renewable energy act (EEG) will be 6.17 euro cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2015, down from 6.24 cents in 2014, they said.

The information came a day ahead of the official announcement of the number by the power transmission network operators (TSOs).

It is an important indicator of the future cost of green energy to consumers under the renewable energy act (EEG), an item which they have to pay as part of their power bills.

Green industry group BEE said last month the payment would likely fall for the first time year-on-year since it was introduced in 2000 as part of the country's expansion of renewable power.

While this would come true under the scenario outlined by the sources, BEE had seen a fall of up to 3.9 percent, which would gone further to offset effects of the rising surcharge in recent years.

Savings to consumers may also be reigned in if fees charged by grid companies to transport the power were to rise, the sources said. The TSOs are due to release these as well.

The green power cost burdens households and companies in Europe's biggest power market and has pressured the government to seek reforms to the system of rewarding green power producers with above-market payments for their output, in a politically-desired transition to a low carbon economy.

Wind and solar technologies are not yet able to compete with conventional energy on cost factors alone but are catching up and receive a difference between guaranteed EEG prices and market prices for mainly thermal power plants.

The real eventual cost of the surcharge also depends on weather patterns - which ultimately rule how much renewable energy is produced and entitled to support payments once it is fed into the grid.

The reforms curbed incentives and set caps on green energy expansion, also mandating that it must be better integrated into the wholesale electricity market.

Renewable energy reached 28.5 percent of all power consumed in the country in the first half of 2014.

(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Markus Wacket; Writing by Vera Eckert; Editing by Christoph Steitz and Louise Heavens)