Energy: How does electricity costs depend on customers?

The network charges as part of the electricity price have increased significantly, which is why the federal government is planning relief. But do they also arrive with customers? Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche (CDU) told the German Press Agency in Berlin: “The relief must be passed on to customers through the network operators. My clear expectation to the industry is: The relief must arrive at the customer.”

The black and red coalition has announced that the electricity consumers will relieve the transfer network charges by taking over a part of the transmission network charges and 6.5 billion euros.

The transmission network charges are incurred for the use of the electricity transmission network. They are then switched to consumers by the energy suppliers. The network fees are part of the electricity price.

The question is to what extent the suppliers are now passing on the relief to customers. There are also large regional differences in the network charges. The fees, which also pay costs for the expansion of the power grids, are often higher in regions with a lot of renewable energies as in the north than in the south.

Precise relief for customers unclear

A grant of 6.5 billion euros relieves the network charges of all customers, said Kerstin Andreae, chair of the main management of the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management. “But it cannot be said in general how high the relief of each customer will be in the end result.” That is very different regionally. “On the one hand, it depends on how much electricity is taken from the transmission network in the respective distribution network, and on the other hand on the customer structure in this region.”

Andreae emphasized that in order to smooth the relief smoothly, it was important that the necessary legal decisions will be taken by the beginning of October. Only then could the network operators be reduced to the grant on January 1, 2026. The energy suppliers also have fixed deadlines to include relief in energy prices.

According to calculations by the Verivox comparison portal, the federal government’s electricity price drops by around 1.6 cents per kilowatt hour due to the billion -dollar federal subsidy. A three-person household with an annual consumption of 4,000 kilowatt hours saves around 64 euros. “However, the relief of electricity prices via the transmission network fee does not arrive everywhere in Germany,” said Verivox energy expert Thorsten Storck. “Because network areas in which a lot of electricity is generated are less dependent on the transmission network charges.” Accordingly, there would be less of the relief than in network areas with less electricity generation.

“Since grants for the transmission network charges are not a tax cut, the energy suppliers are not obliged to pass them on directly to households,” said Storck. They would indirectly flow into the calculation of the suppliers and be offset against other cost factors. “It is not certain that the individual electricity price will actually drop. Many households probably have to take care of a cheaper electricity tariff to benefit from the grants to the transmission network fees.”

The network fees have increased significantly. Among other things, the expensive expansion of the power grids in Germany is financed through the fees. Thousands of kilometers are necessary for new lines so that the wind power produced, especially in the north, is transported to large consumption centers in the south.

Places of scope for relief through quick growth

The Federal Government also decided to steer the reduction in electricity tax for the manufacturing trade from 2026 and to abolish the gas storage surcharge. In the coalition agreement, the CDU, CSU and SPD had announced that they would reduce electricity tax for everyone – albeit with the subject of financing. The Federal Government has the controversial decision of not reducing electricity tax for everyone at first, with household constraints, with the fact that the relief of industry is priority to secure jobs.

“In order to implement the further relief and the clear mandate of the coalition agreement, we have to work out the necessary scope,” said Reiche. “We can create scope in the existing household and crucial: through growth. The moment we have developed scope, we will use them to further reduce energy costs.”