The gas storage facilities are full and the costs for electricity and gas are falling. But the world is full of trouble spots. Thomas Engelke, energy expert at the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations, explains what happens next.
Mr. Engelke, according to the consumer portal Verivox, the electricity price for new customers is currently 29.4 cents per kilowatt hour. Last year at this time it was 53 cents. From a consumer perspective, is everything good again in energy Germany?
Both good and not good. The stock market prices are down, wonderful. This also applies to gas.
There, a kilowatt hour costs 8.7 cents for new customers, compared to 40 cents a year ago.
Yes, in both cases that is around pre-crisis levels. The problem, however, is that these tariffs do not apply to many consumers because, for example, they only concluded new contracts nine months ago, when the tariffs were still very high. So many are trapped in expensive contracts.
Why do energy prices always go up so quickly, but go down so slowly, even though purchasing prices on the stock exchanges have been falling for around a year?
You have to be fair: Last year, the exorbitantly rising stock market prices were not immediately passed on to consumer prices. In both cases, household prices were adjusted with a time lag, upwards and downwards. But clearly, the falling cost prices must reach consumers as quickly as possible.
How will the price of electricity and gas develop in the next twelve months, especially over the winter?
Source: Stern
