Austrian Act on Securing Business Locations 2025 (Standortabsicherungsgesetz – SAG 2025)

To specifically support Austrian companies that must expect significantly increased electricity costs in the calendar years 2025 and 2026 due to the EU emissions trading system, the “SAG 2025” was recently passed (Austrian Federal Law Gazette (BGBl.) I No. 67/2025). Similar to the already known SAG 2022, energy-intensive companies are to be granted financial compensation to counteract the risk of carbon leakage to foreign countries.

The publication of the detailed funding guidelines, the draft of which must be submitted to the European Commission for state aid approval within four weeks of the SAG 2025 coming into effect, is still pending. The Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws) has been entrusted with the processing.

Below, we provide information on the most important points:

Eligible companies

Companies that produce goods in one or more plants within the sectors or subsectors listed in Annex 1 of SAG 2025, such as the aluminium, chemical, paper, wood, leather industries, in the respective calendar year are eligible for funding.

Not eligible for funding are:

• • companies in difficulty (according to the guidelines of the European Commission)
  • companies that have not complied with a recovery order resulting from a previous Commission decision establishing the illegality or incompatibility of aid with the Common Market

Amount of funding

The funding is provided as a direct grant amounting to 75% of the actual indirect carbon costs incurred.

The amount of funding per plant is to be calculated for each calendar year using clearly defined calculation formulas according to Annex 2 of SAG 2025.

A funding application can only be submitted for the portion of a plant’s annual electricity consumption that exceeds 1 GWh.

Requirements for funding

The requirements of the funding guidelines must be met.

Additional conditions include, among others:

• • Submission of a valid energy audit in accordance with the Austrian Federal Energy Efficiency Act (EEffG), either as a stand-alone energy audit or within the framework of a certified energy or environmental management system

• • Implementation of energy efficiency and decarbonisation measures (whose investment costs do not exceed a payback period of five years) within 60 months from the granting of the funding
  • The investment volume for these measures must amount to at least 80% of the granted funding, of which at least 50% must be allocated to energy efficiency measures
  • The implemented measures and their effects must be documented with appropriate evidence.

Budget

For the years 2025 and 2026, up to EUR 75 million each will be made available (max. 25% of the auction proceeds from emission certificates of the previous year). If the total requested funding exceeds the available budget, the funding will be reduced proportionally.

Application and deadline

Applications are to be submitted to the aws.

Submission deadlines:

• • for the calendar year 2025: within six months after state aid approval by the European Commission
  • for the calendar year 2026: from 1 January to 30 June 2027

We will inform you as soon as the funding guidelines are published and applications can be submitted via the aws Fördermanager.

Author: Daniela Stastny, Cornelia Kalina