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Strong price increase for household energy

Strong price increase for household energy
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Image: Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP

After the energy price index (EPI) calculated by the Energy Agency fell by 10.9 percent in December compared to the previous month, household energy prices rose again by 12.8 percent at the beginning of the year. In a year-on-year comparison, household energy prices increased by 40.8 percent. The main reasons were price increases for electricity, natural gas and district heating.

The price increase in January this year was the largest since March 2022. The electricity cost brake would have had an effect, but the price-dampening effect was overshadowed by other price increases. At the beginning of the year, electricity prices increased by 25.9 percent month-on-month and by 17.7 percent year-on-year. Customers also had to dig deeper into their pockets when it came to gas in January: Prices rose by 15.4 percent compared to December 2022, and compared to January 2022 gas prices were up a whopping 104.0 percent.

The main reasons for this were the regular contract adjustments made by some energy suppliers and increased network charges. From March 1, however, the network fees are likely to fall again, since then 80 percent of the additional costs have been borne by the federal government. There are currently more and more cheaper offers for electricity on the end customer market, so a comparison of providers could be worthwhile, according to the energy agency.

District heating also became more expensive at the beginning of the year. Compared to the previous month of December, the price premium was 22.2 percent, compared to the previous year district heating was 94.3 percent more expensive. The reason is the drastically increased cost of fuels such as natural gas and biomass. In the case of district heating, however, prices can vary greatly from region to region, so this is an average value.

Meanwhile, wood pellet prices fell 7.3 percent month-on-month but remained up 98.9 percent year-on-year. Firewood rose by 2.8 percent compared to December, compared to January 2022 the prices were 83.4 percent higher this year.

Diesel was also more expensive than premium petrol in January, but the price difference has narrowed. An average tank filling (50 liters) of premium petrol cost around 80 euros at the beginning of the year, up 10.2 percent year-on-year. For diesel, you had to pay around 87 euros for the same tank of fuel, which corresponds to a price increase of 23.8 percent year-on-year. Only for heating oil did the price fall by 1.2 percent in a month-on-month comparison, but the price was still 49.6 percent higher in a year-on-year comparison.

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