Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) will be increasing its electricity prices as of 1 January 2007. The reason: procurement costs have risen significantly. "The trend of rising electricity procurement costs will continue in the period 2007 to 2008 with an increase of over 10%," emphasised CEO Manfred Siekmann in a press conference. Not only have the procurement costs risen, but the levy from the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) is also increasing considerably. The reason for this is the sharp rise in the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources being fed into the German electricity grid. "This has an impact on our price calculation and makes the price increase on 1 January unavoidable."
In the area of natural gas and district heating supply, the rising oil price level since January 2007 has also had an impact on prices for end consumers. SWG gas and heating customers will also pay more from 1 January.
New electricity prices
Customers who purchase electricity from the municipal utilities at the general prices of the basic and replacement supply or at the conditions of the PowerPack product family must expect higher prices from 1 January. The labour price of the basic supply will rise by 1.68 cents (Ct) gross to 19.73 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). The change in the tariff structure is also new. The previously consumption-independent billing price and the flat-rate performance price will be summarised as the basic price. The basic price will rise by €4.07 to €64.90 as of 1 January 2008. An average household customer with an annual consumption of 2,500 kWh will have to pay around € 3.84 more per month in future. This corresponds to a percentage price increase of 9 %. In the special product PowerPack Private, the gross labour price for annual consumption of up to 9,000 kWh/year will rise by 1.30 ct/kWh. The basic price will rise by €7.35 per year. For consumption over 9,000 kWh/year, the kilowatt hour will cost 19.21 Ct/kWh from January, and the basic price will be cancelled in this consumption range. A typical average consumption of 4,500 kWh per year for the PowerPack Private will therefore be €5.49 more expensive per month. That is an average increase of 7.7 %.
Another new addition to the tariff structure and a simplification is the discontinuation of tariffs with 96-hour and ¼-hour power metering. Customers who use one of these tariffs will be offered a clever alternative from the PowerPack product family by Stadtwerke.
Reasons for the price increase
For Stadtwerke, the increased procurement costs are only part of the reason for the price increase. The increased burdens from the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) are also driving the electricity price up significantly. Taxes are another not insignificant component. Around 40% of the electricity bill consists of taxes, levies and surcharges. Electricity is no more expensive today than it was when the market was liberalised in 1998, and the proportion that remains with the energy supplier for purchasing, transport and sales has actually fallen by 5% since the electricity market was opened up. In contrast, the burden of taxes, levies and surcharges has risen from 25 % to more than 40 % in the same period.
What additional burdens will gas and heating customers face?
In the area of gas supply, both the labour prices in the basic and replacement ordinance and the labour prices in the special price regulation for heating/thermo will increase by 0.40 Ct/kWh net or by around 0.47 Ct/kWh including all taxes. The basic price remains constant. For an average customer in the basic supply with an annual consumption of 3,000 kWh, the price increase means an increase of 5.6 %. This corresponds to an additional monthly charge of 1.18 euros. A customer who heats with natural gas and consumes 30,000 kWh per year will pay €11.75 more per month from January - an increase of 8.1%.
SWG will also be increasing its district heating prices on 1 January. Here, the labour prices will rise by 0.50 Ct/kWh net or around 0.60 Ct/kWh including all taxes. The annual performance price, which is payable per kilowatt of output, remains constant. As a result, customers with an average residential consumption of 7,400 kWh per year will pay €3.70 per month more in future, which corresponds to an increase of 6.6%. Customers with an annual consumption of 22,500 kWh (approx. single-family home) will have to expect an additional charge of €11.25 per month, i.e. an increase of 7.2%.
Following the last two gas price reductions (1 January 2007, 1 April 2007), the municipal utilities are now having to increase the price of natural gas due to the steady rise in the price of oil since mid-January. Rising global demand for energy, particularly in industrialised countries, is driving up prices. Due to Germany's high dependence on imports - more than 80 % of the natural gas consumed in Germany has to be imported - the rising world market prices cannot be compensated for. They have an indirect effect on the price of natural gas through the rising procurement costs of the supply companies.
Customers receive mail
Around 80,000 electricity customers and 24,000 gas customers will receive mail from the municipal utilities in the next few days. In it, SWG will inform its customers about the price increase that will take effect on 1 January.
Submit meter readings
SWG customers do not necessarily have to read their meters on 31 December. This is because the supplier can calculate consumption before and after the price increase using characteristic curves. However, if you would like to read the actual meter reading yourself and inform SWG, the best way to do this from 15 December to 31 January is online at www.stadtwerke-giessen.de or by postcard to Stadtwerke Gießen. Customers who wish to hand in their meter reading at the infoCentre on Marktplatz can do so from Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and on Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm. Callers can call the SWG service hotline on 0180 22 11 100 from Monday to Friday from 7 am to 7 pm. However, SWG asks callers for their understanding. Due to the potentially high call volume, all lines may be busy. If you want to avoid the queue, you should use one of the other options.
SWG offers advice on saving energy
SWG's energy advice and tariff advice service is available at the infoCentre on Marktplatz so that customers can manage their individual consumption efficiently and reduce it permanently. The central contact point for customers is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and on Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm.