Most German household energy prices to stay unchanged in 2018 - Verivox

MVV Energie AG

23/11/2017 11:21

* Annual power price at 1,131 euros for household of three 
    * Bills at all-time high, operators slow to pass on savings 
    * By contrast, gas prices at 12-year lows 
    * Gas suppliers ignore index-linked oil price rises 
 
    FRANKFURT, Nov 23 (Reuters) - German households will 
continue to pay record-high power prices next year, despite some 
room for cuts, while gas prices will remain unchanged even 
though there is scope for increases, prices portal Verivox said 
on Thursday. 
    The portal tracks the behaviour of 824 power and 713 gas 
suppliers and presented its findings after the deadline for 
operators to notify customers of planned changes as of Jan. 1, 
2018 expired. 
    Price portals encourage customers to compare prices and 
switch suppliers in the 40-million-household retail market, 
Europe's biggest, which was liberalised 20 years ago and is now 
highly transparent. 
    Prices for electricity and gas have diverged, with those of 
power at all-time highs, due to inbuilt renewable energy 
subsidies. Gas prices are at 12-year lows, reflecting 
cross-indexation with crude oil.  O/R  
    "Most of the more than 800 (electricity) suppliers will keep 
prices unchanged at the turn of the year, although at least 
regionally, there is some room for price cuts," said Mathias 
Koester-Niechziol, chief product officer for energy at Verivox. 
    The portal identified 99 price changes: 50 companies will 
raise power prices by 2.7 percent, creating an annually higher 
charge of 32 euros ($37.88) for a family consuming 4,000 
kilowatt-hours (kWh).  
    Some 49 firms, among them the Leipzig city utility and EnBW 
 EBKG.DE  subsidiary EnBW ODR, will cut prices by an average 2.1 
percent to offer annual savings of 26 euros, it said. 
    Average power costs for German households in 2017 reached an 
all-time high of 1,131 euros, 3 percent more than those payable 
in 2016. 
    Production is cheap but the state siphons off money from 
taxes and fees, which amount to 56 percent of the final bill. 
    Verivox said operators had leeway for cuts: renewable power 
surcharges had eased for 2018, network transmission fees in some 
regions had fallen considerably, and wholesale prices, while 
rising recently, were historically low. 
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1MO3X3 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1MR1NQ EL/DE  
    As for gas, 67 price changes are planned for January - 46 
companies will cut by an average 5 percent, among them Mannheim 
utility MVV  MVVGn.DE , and 21 companies will raise theirs by an 
average 4.8 percent, Verivox said. 
    Procurement costs for gas had risen by 28 percent this year, 
led by oil, but a majority of suppliers had absorbed these rises 
rather than passing them on, it said. 
    Average gas prices are 5.74 cents per kWh, with typical 
households consuming 20,000 kWh. 
 ($1 = 0.8447 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Dale Hudson) 
 ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1228; Reuters 
Messaging: vera.eckert.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: GERMANY ENERGY/RETAIL