Energy prices: Study: Heating costs will rise again by more than 30 percent in 2023

According to an extrapolation, heating costs in two-family and multi-family homes rose by an average of 31 percent last year. This emerges from this year’s heat monitor from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

Taking the gas price cap into account, households would have paid an average of 11.81 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the study. The increase was almost as high as in the first year of the war in Ukraine, when energy prices rose by a good 33 percent. The study was available to the German Press Agency in advance.

The heat monitor is based on heating cost bills for around 170,000 two- and multi-family houses, which were created by the real estate service provider Ista (Essen). According to DIW, they include more than 1.5 million apartments that are heated with gas, oil or district heating. According to the DIW, these are predominantly rental apartments.

Heating energy requirements have fallen by 8.9 percent since 2021

The energy requirements of apartments fell further in 2023. On average, temperature-adjusted consumption was 118 kilowatt hours per square meter of heated living space – 3.8 percent less than in the previous year and 8.9 percent less than in 2021. The study authors cited higher prices, calls to save energy and the main reasons for this technical measures to increase efficiency. “However, the increase in prices could not be offset by the savings in demand,” they write in the new heat monitor.

There were big regional differences in consumption. Households in the east in particular – from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania to Bavaria – would have a significantly lower heating requirement. “While it was 111 kilowatt hours per square meter in the eastern German states, households in western Germany needed an average of 121 kilowatt hours.” The reason is believed to be a higher renovation rate in the eastern German states. In 2023, households in Saarland would have heated the most (137 kilowatt hours), and households in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania would have heated the least (99 kilowatt hours).

Verivox: The cheapest gas providers are currently 8.8 cents

How heating costs develop in the current 2024/25 heating season depends on numerous factors, such as the wholesale price for natural gas, the network costs and the CO2 price. According to the comparison portal Verivox, there is an average increase of 21 percent in gas network costs at the turn of the year. According to Verivox, if this were passed on in full, it would mean an annual increase of 98 euros with an annual consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours. However, it remains to be seen whether and to what extent this will be passed on by the suppliers to the end customers.

According to Verivox, the average gas price in Germany is currently 11.4 cents per kilowatt hour – a year ago it was 11.9 cents. According to a spokesman, the price for the cheapest providers is currently 8.8 cents, which is similar to a year ago, when the cheapest providers charged 8.7 cents.