Berlin The gas expert commission set up by the federal government means well with the users of gas heating systems: they should benefit from a price brake, as should the users of district heating. But if you have an oil heater in the basement, you will get nothing.
The prices for heating oil have also risen significantly recently, albeit not as much as gas prices. According to industry calculations, consumers with oil heating will in future pay significantly more than consumers with gas heating.
At the beginning of the week, the gas expert commission presented its proposals for a two-stage gas price brake. In December, gas and district heating users should get their down payment refunded. A gas and heat price brake should then take effect between March 2023 and at least April 2024.
For a basic quantity of gas, this provides for a state-guaranteed gross price including all state-initiated price components of twelve cents per kilowatt hour of gas. The basic quota should be 80 percent of consumption. District heating customers should get a guaranteed price of 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour of district heating, again for a basic quota of 80 percent of consumption.
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The price of 12 cents per kilowatt hour of gas is roughly double the pre-crisis level. According to the Gas Commission, the aim is to introduce consumers to the “new normal”. Currently the prices are significantly higher. In the medium term, however, twelve cents are considered realistic.
>> Read more: Gas price commission proposes tiered model
According to the Fuels and Energy trade association, the disadvantage for oil users is 658 euros per year. The association calculates this: With a consumption of 2000 liters of heating oil, which corresponds to around 20,000 kilowatt hours, and a price of EUR 1.70 per liter of heating oil (17 cents/KWh), the costs for a household with oil heating are EUR 3400.
For a comparable household that uses natural gas and also consumes 20,000 kilowatt hours, the comparison portal Verivox calculates costs of 4108 euros without relief measures, i.e. 20.54 cents per kWh. If the gas price brake is implemented as proposed by the Commission, 80 percent of the gas consumption, i.e. 16,000 kilowatt hours, will be billed at twelve cents per kilowatt hour, which makes 1920 euros.
In addition, there are 4000 kilowatt hours at 20.54 cents each, resulting in 821.60 euros. In total, that makes a gas bill of around 2742 euros. Compared to 3400 euros for the oil heating, there is a difference of 658 euros. The planned one-off payment in December has not yet been taken into account. The gas price commission proposes a price brake for the 19 million gas heaters in Germany. Anyone who heats with oil has none of it. The coalition promises a remedy.
Gas Commission wants to deal with the issue
Adrian Willig, Managing Director of the Fuels and Energy trade association, sees this critically. “It is incomprehensible why the ten million households with oil heating should be left alone with their increased energy costs,” he says. Consumer advocates share this view: “This is a question of justice. We should cushion social hardships – and not punish investment decisions that have not been made in recent years,” criticizes Udo Sieverding, energy expert at the NRW consumer advice center.
>> Read here: What should you consider with the alternatives to oil heating and gas heating?
The expert commission argues that it was their job to develop proposals for a gas price brake, but not a model for curbing heating oil prices. Nevertheless, Karen Pittel from the Ifo Institute, who is a member of the Commission, agrees that the Commission will deal with the issue: “How hardship cases are dealt with, which of course can also occur in households that do not heat with natural gas, will be one of the most important issues Topics of the Commission’s work in the coming weeks.” In addition, additional relief is conceivable, especially for poorer households, regardless of how a household heats.
Coalition politicians have also recognized the issue. “Gas prices have risen much more than oil. The Gas Commission was only commissioned to develop a gas price brake, and it delivered,” says Bernd Westphal, economic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group. “Nevertheless, we are examining the situation and cost burdens in the heating sector. If necessary, the burden is relieved, although everyone knows that the state cannot compensate for all price increases,” he added.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, of the 40.6 million homes in Germany, 19.6 million homes are heated with natural gas, 10.4 million with oil and 5.6 million with district heating. The rest is distributed among other heating variants, such as wood pellet heaters and electric heaters.
More: Commission chief Veronika Grimm on deficiencies in the gas price brake