Good news for natural gas and district heating customers: Stadtwerke Gießen AG (SWG) is reducing prices by around 20 percent for its 26,500 gas customers and 6,000 heating customers as of 1 April. The price reduction is SWG's response to the positive developments on the global energy markets in recent months, which have now had an impact on the natural gas procurement markets, announced SWG CEO Manfred Siekmann. "The current situation now enables us to relieve our customers with a reduction of around 20 per cent," said Siekmann. Due to the fixed oil price, the gas price follows the heating oil price level by averaging six monthly values. This also resulted in last year's price increases of around 8 percent on 1 January and around 24.5 percent on 1 October 2008 for the average SWG customer.
New prices
In the area of gas supply, both the labour prices for basic and replacement supply and the labour prices for the special price regulation for heating/thermo will fall by 1.55 cents per kilowatt hour including all taxes. The basic price remains constant. For an average customer with an annual consumption of 2,500 kWh, this means a price reduction of 14%. A customer who heats with natural gas and consumes 26,300 kWh per year will pay around 34 euros less per month from April - a reduction of 19.63 %.
District heating prices will also fall from 1 April. The gross energy prices will fall by 2.32 Ct/kWh. The annual performance price, which is payable per kilowatt of output, remains constant. As a result, customers in a flat supplied with district heating with an average consumption of 7,400 kWh will pay € 171.68 less gross per year in future, which corresponds to a reduction of 19.24 %. For customers with an annual consumption of 22,500 kWh (which corresponds to the consumption of a detached house), the bill will fall by €43.50 gross per month or 20.56%.
"With a bit of luck, the 20 per cent for April doesn't have to be the last word on price reductions this year, said Matthias Acker (SWG company spokesman). If the heating oil price remains at roughly the current level - "small fluctuations don't matter - our customers can expect a further reduction," Acker announced cautiously.
Gas customers can report meter readings
Gas and heating customers will be contacted by the municipal utilities in the next few days and informed about the new prices, which will come into effect on 1 April. Gas customers will also receive a personalised meter reading card in the post. All gas customers who wish to read their meter on 1 April 2009 can do so using the card and return it to Stadtwerke by 15 April. Gas customers can also inform SWG of their meter reading on the Internet at www.stadtwerke-giessen.de. District heating customers do not need to worry about anything - most district heating meters are read remotely, the others are calculated.
SWG helps customers save energy
Stadtwerke supports its customers in saving energy. Together with the energy experts from the infoCentre, SWG customers can find out what savings can be made in their household. The infoCentre on the market square is open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and on Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm. More information about saving energy can also be found on the Internet at www.stadtwerke-giessen.de.