Customers who purchase electricity from Stadtwerke Gießen AG (SWG) must expect new prices as of 1 April 2005. The trend towards rising electricity prices was already noticeable at the beginning of the year. Most of the more than 900 suppliers in Germany had already increased their electricity prices at the beginning of the year. From April, SWG will also be increasing prices for electricity customers who use the PowerPack Private electricity supply contract. The labour price for annual consumption of up to 6,387 kilowatt hours (kWh) will increase by 0.9 ct/kWh to 15.35 ct/kWh (gross). The basic price remains constant at 99 euros per year. With higher consumption, the kilowatt hour will cost 16.90 Ct/kWh (gross) from April instead of the current 16.00 Ct/kWh; the basic price will then be cancelled. The average PowerPack customer with an electricity consumption of 4,500 kilowatt hours per year will pay €3.38 per month more, or 5.4 per cent, in future.Stadtwerke is also planning a price increase for the general tariff from 1 April. SWG's planned price increase is currently awaiting approval from the Hessian Ministry of Economics. SWG will publish the prices as soon as they have been approved. This increase will be in the range of 3 to 4.5 per cent and will therefore also be in line with competition, as the special PowerPack price was not fully cost-covering, it was adjusted slightly more. Manfred Siekmann, CEO of SWG, emphasised that numerous competitors had already raised their electricity prices at the beginning of the year. As a result, SWG customers experienced three more months of price stability compared to many others, saving a total of 550,000 euros. According to Siekmann, this price stability was made possible in particular by the supplier's expertise in energy purchasing. "Fortunately, we will be able to keep gas and district heating prices stable until the end of September despite a slight increase in gas procurement prices," reported Siekmann, who was clearly delighted to be able to announce this good news.
14.02.2005