Analysis: Higher costs when energy price brakes end | free press

2023-08-19 09:50:11

The energy price brakes continue to dampen costs for numerous electricity and gas customers. Most consumers have a clear stance on extending the measure.

Heidelberg.

If the energy price brakes expire at the end of the year, electricity and gas would become significantly more expensive again on average. This emerges from calculations by the comparison portal Verivox, which are available to the German Press Agency.

According to this, the average electricity costs for an annual consumption of 4,000 kilowatt hours would increase by EUR 56 from the current EUR 1,448 to EUR 1,504. This corresponds to an increase of 3.9 percent. The average gas costs for 20,000 kilowatt hours would increase by 173 euros from the current 2201 euros to 2374 euros, an increase of 7.9 percent. If only basic supply tariffs are considered, the increases for electricity and gas are even higher.

At the end of July, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) spoke out in favor of extending the electricity and gas price brakes until Easter 2024. As things stand at present, the energy price brakes will expire at the end of the year.

Poll: clear majority for extension

In a representative survey commissioned by Verivox, 70 percent of those questioned said they supported Habeck’s proposal. Only 13 percent would like the price brakes to expire at the end of this year. The rest stated that they had no opinion or were unable to assess the topic.

An extension of the price brakes primarily provides a subjective feeling of security. But new customer tariffs are already as cheap as before the energy crisis, the portal emphasized. According to Verivox, a kilowatt hour of electricity for new customers currently costs an average of 29.49 cents, and a kilowatt hour of gas for new customers costs 9.1 cents. In contrast, the price caps for the price brakes are 40 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity and 12 cents per kilowatt hour for gas.

“Although consumers can leave the basic service at any time with a notice period of two weeks, the price brakes mean that many no longer have an eye on the true tariff costs,” explained Verivox boss Daniel Puschmann. (dpa)