Monitoring report: change of Supplier helps against high electricity prices

Monitoring report
Supplier exchange helps against high electricity prices

The electricity price in Germany is usually only one direction: It goes up. Meanwhile, a kilowatt hour costs more than 30 cents. There are, however, ways of saving, says the Federal network Agency.

Many consumers in Germany do not pay according to calculations by the German Federal network Agency too much for electricity and Gas, because you can cancel your expensive basic service rates.

Alone by switching to another gas supplier you could save an annual average of 240 euros how to Pay for the new monitoring report by the Federal network Agency and Federal cartel office, the existence of the German press Agency.

For household electricity in the basic supply, the Federal network Agency to date, 1 has. April 2020 determined at an average price of 33.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. More than a third of household customers had the contract last year, yet such expensive. Through a contract with the local power company, let is a significant saving to achieve, stresses the authority.

The largest potential savings in switching to a competitor of the local suppliers, because in this case, the average price per kilowatt-hour of 31.2 per Cent amounted to. “For a household customers with a yearly consumption of 3,500 kilowatt-hours, this results in an average Savings in electricity cost of approximately 90 euros per year”, stresses the network Agency. Special bonuses, such as bonus payments for new customers could increase these Savings of approximately eight percent.

For gas customers, there is due to the larger quantities are needed, especially for Heating, mostly even greater savings. Here, too, the basic supply agreement at 6.99 cents per kilowatt-hour is the most expensive type Delivery. They had been used in 2019, however, around a quarter of its gas customers. In the case of the alternative providers, the average price amounted to only 5,96 cents per kilowatt-hour. By a change of a household could save $ 240 in a year, calculates the network Agency. Also in this case, exchange premiums could come to this.

Consumer advocates have long been critics of the pricing. “Many primary care rates are inflated in terms of price,” said Udo Sieverding, energy expert at the Verbraucherzentrale NRW. For the new year, there is electricity “in a number of network game rooms for the price areas reductions”, because the procurement cost of the utilities are decreased and the EEG is lower, he said. The Federal government has capped the contribution of the consumer to the promotion of green electricity at 6.5 cents in the coming year. This year, the EEG levy is 6,756 cents.

The providers point out that you must buy in to the security of supply of electricity and Gas far in advance and therefore not in the short term, lower stock market prices could give. In addition, would have to be taken into account in the basic supply tariffs bad debts by defaulters. The utilities must, in principle, supply all household customers with electricity or Gas.

The distance between base supply and alternative tariffs to the Figures of the Federal network Agency in the past few years. The power of the basic supply tariff in 2010 was, therefore, to a good 4 percent more expensive, now it is around 8 percent. The Gas, the distance in the same period grew from 9 to over 17 percent.

But why do many households remain the expensive Tariffs faithful? Consumer advocates Sieverding refers to four groups: For consumers with a credit Bureau entry, a change of only a few providers was not possible. However, there are also customers who are felt through the formalities for the change, overwhelmed, or insolvency of providers deterred. Other “actually wanted to switch a long time ago, but have not tackled that yet”. Municipal utilities but also customers who remained aware of their traditional supplier loyalty, because he supported swimming pools, clubs, or the transport.

dpa

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