Clearing  >  Financial clearing

Financial clearing

Clearing fees

Clearing fees are the fees set by E-Control Austria that need to be paid to APCS by the balance group representatives.

Each balance group representative has to pay a clearing fee to APCS every month, depending on the amount and type of energy turnover in their balance groups; the current fee rates are:

  • For all chargeable physical energy consumption2: EUR 0,0887/MWh
  • For all chargeable energy sales3: EUR 0,0079/MWh

1NB: The current clearing fees are established by the tenth Clearing Fee (Amendment) Order, which came into force on 1 October 2023.

2Chargeable physical energy consumption is the total metered consumption on the demand side of a balance group’s energy balance.

3Chargeable energy sales are the total energy demand volume4 of a balance group less its physical energy consumption.

4The total energy demand volume of a balance group is the aggregate of energy sales (sales schedules), physical energy consumption (metered consumption data) and supplied imbalance energy. This is equal to the total energy supply volume, which is the aggregate of energy purchases (procurement schedules), generation (metered generation data) and imbalance energy procurement.

Financial clearing

Risk management

Risk management serves to prevent financial losses in the event of payment defaults by registered market participants. All balance group representatives must therefore deposit variable collateral and base collateral based on their total turnover, with the former being used to cover payment defaults by the respective BGR. The amount of collateral required depends, among other things, on the results of the credit assessment carried out by OeKB to evaluate the financial situation (first during the registration process and then on an annual basis).
Basic collateral serves to cover payment defaults by the BGR. In addition, it also serves as collective collateral for payment defaults that are not covered by the collateral of the individual market participant within the framework of joint and several liability.

This dual collateral concept is designed to cover as many risks as possible in connection with payment defaults by individual market participants.

APCS continuously reviews and improves the content of the existing risk management concept.

Financial clearing

Reverse charge

For invoicing purposes, it is necessary to distinguish between whether a BGR has its registered office or place of business in Austria or abroad, as this is essential for the VAT treatment of the supply or purchase of imbalance energy.

The following scenarios may arise in connection with the purchase or supply of imbalance energy, which have different consequences depending on the registered office or place of business of the BGR:

  1. Registered office or permanent establishment in Austria: If the BGR has its registered office or a permanent establishment in Austria, invoicing is subject to sales tax.
  2. No registered office or permanent establishment in Austria: If the BGR has no registered office or permanent establishment in Austria, Section 3 (13) of the Austrian Value Added Tax Act (UStG) stipulates that a delivery is deemed to have been made where the customer (= BGR) operates its business, i.e., in this case at the foreign place of business. Since the place of performance is therefore abroad, the turnover is not taxable in Austria and invoices must be issued by APCS without VAT.

In this case, the BGR issues an invoice and APCS issues a credit note, whereby the general rule applies that the transaction is taxable in accordance with Section 3 (13) of the Austrian Value Added Tax Act (UStG) because APCS is based in Austria; furthermore, this transaction is also taxable in Austria as there is no tax exemption.

  1. Registered office or permanent establishment in Austria: If the BGR has its registered office or permanent establishment in Austria, it issues an invoice with VAT and APCS issues a credit note with VAT – the BGR then has an input tax deduction.
  2. No registered office or permanent establishment in Austria: If the BGR has no registered office or permanent establishment in Austria, reverse charge applies in accordance with Section 19 (1c) of the Austrian Value Added Tax Act (UStG) because the place of delivery (in accordance with Section 3 (13) UStG) is in Austria and the BGR (as the supplier) has no registered office or permanent establishment in Austria. In this case, the sales tax is owed by APCS (as the recipient of the delivery) because it is registered for sales tax purposes in Austria.

In order to issue invoices for the purchase or supply of imbalance energy correctly, APCS therefore needs to know whether the respective BGR has its registered office or a permanent establishment in Austria or abroad.
For this reason, whenever a new BGR, supplier, or balancing service provider who is also the invoice recipient is registered, the completed Form G, duly signed by the company, must also be submitted to APCS.

In addition, every BGR registered with APCS that establishes its registered office or opens a permanent establishment in Austria or dissolves a registered office/permanent establishment is obliged to report this immediately to APCS using the completed Form G.

UStBBKV as of January 1, 2014

In connection with the regulation of the Federal Ministry of Finance concerning transactions for which the tax liability is transferred to the recipient of the service in order to combat VAT fraud (VAT Fraud Prevention Regulation – UStBBKV; Federal Law Gazette II No. 369/2013) and information from the Federal Ministry of Finance concerning a rule of doubt recognized by the latter, according to which, if there is doubt as to whether a service within the meaning of Section 2 UStBBKV exists in an individual case, the service provider and the recipient of the service shall mutually agree that the tax liability shall be transferred to the recipient of the service, whereby a written declaration by the recipient of the service shall suffice as proof thereof, it is necessary to obtain information about the tax situation applicable to the company that is a contractual partner of APCS.

In this context, we refer to the provision in Section 8.2 of Version 7.0 of the Appendix on Settlement and Accounting to our General Terms and Conditions for Balance Group Coordinators (T&C-BGC), according to which the contractual partner is required to submit a corresponding declaration.

If this declaration is not submitted or is not submitted on time, APCS must assume, in accordance with the cited provision of the Appendix on Settlement and Accounting, that the contracting party's company falls under the scope of application of § 1 in conjunction with § 2 (2) UStBBKV, provided that it has a permanent establishment in Austria.