Some suppliers that cancelled consumer contracts while not filing for insolvency are suspected to have sold on the futures they procured cheaply to make great profits instead of supplying their customers. Consumer protection advocates say that the case of low-cost supplier Stromio, which cancelled consumer contracts before the end of December 2021, has affected several hundred thousand households. Households that have been dropped by their supplier automatically receive power and gas from their local standard provider ("Grundversorger," often the municipal utility), which usually charges higher prices than other suppliers. Depending on how much (still cheap) futures a supplier is currently holding to provide for its customers, or how much the company “bet” on (now not cheap anymore) spot market buys, suppliers are faced with more or less serious financial problems. Suppliers tend to source the electricity for their customers partially through long-term contracts (futures on the EEX Power Derivatives Market) often for years ahead, and partially through short-term power purchases on the spot market ( EPEX). While some electricity suppliers have adapted their rates to reflect higher procurement costs, others have terminated running supply contracts with consumers and several power suppliers have filed for insolvency. The degree to which German consumers are affected by the energy crunch in Europe depends largely on their individual power and gas supply contracts. The poorest households in Germany – which already pay the highest share of their income for energy – were particularly hard hit as many of them lack alternative options and are on fixed incomes. In contrast, Bulgarian households spend more than 25 percent, followed by Greeks and Hungarians at 20 percent. German households pay just over nine percent of their average monthly income for energy, on par with consumers in neighbouring France and the Netherlands. Also, Germans spend a much lower share of their income on energy bills (including electricity, heating and petrol) than many other EU citizens, according to the German Economic Institute ( IW). Although they pay one of the highest nominal power prices of all customers in Europe, the actual monthly power bills of German households are usually smaller than, for example, those in the U.S., where the price per kilowatt-hour is lower but consumption due to less efficient appliances and more use of air conditioning is much higher. for heat pumps and driving, more attractive and to reduce the burden on consumers from the new CO2 price on fossil heating fuels, the renewables levy reduction is now eaten up by the rise in power supply costs (see above).Įnergy-intensive commercial customers are exempt from certain components of the power price, and some levies vary according to the consumer's location. Originally intended to make the use of electricity, e.g. Renewable energy installations will instead be supported from the state budget using income from the sale of emission allowances. This would reduce by 100 euros the annual power bill of a household that consumes 3,500 kWh per year, comparison website Strom-Report has calculated. ![]() ![]() However, in 2021, the government reduced the renewables levy to 6.5 ct/kWh and since January 2022 it has been 3.72 ct/kWh. Yet another large share (around 20%) is made up by the renewables surcharge, which covers the guaranteed feed-in tariffs for renewable energy installations. Another quarter arises from the actual power supply costs, including the wholesale power price and the supplier’s margin. About one quarter of the 2021 price (7.8 ct/kWh) results from regulated grid fees, which include metering and associated services, according to an analysis conducted by the German Association of Energy and Water Industries ( BDEW). The average power price for households and small businesses in Germany stood at 32.16 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) in 2021. In Germany, electricity prices for consumers are among the highest in Europe due to a range of taxes and levies that make up more than half the price. While the skyrocketing price of natural gas and the steep costs of emission allowances to a large extent explain the high wholesale power price in 2021 and even today, the price that consumers and businesses pay with their electricity and heating bills in Germany is also influenced by taxes and levies - or the exemption from these.
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