Consumers shouldn’t expect relief anytime soon.
(Photo: dpa-tmn)
Dusseldorf Various German electricity and gas suppliers are currently not accepting any new customers. For example, the Eon subsidiary Eprimo is currently displaying the message at the top of its home page that there are currently no offers for new customers. At Green Planet Energy a red warning appears and the Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS) also warn in a yellow box: “Electricity and gas supply for new customers is currently suspended.” The comparison portal Check24 currently also does not offer any contracts with the three suppliers.
As remarkable as it appears when a company voluntarily foregoes additional customers: In view of the high energy prices in recent weeks, it is only logical. Steffen Suttner, Managing Director of Check24, says: “The purchasing strategies of the suppliers are different – therefore there can be different reasons why energy suppliers do not accept new customers. Due to the current price explosion on the stock exchanges or in the markets, numerous providers are recalculating their tariffs. ”
According to Eprimo, that is exactly the case. The company announced on its side: “We are currently revising our tariff offer for new customers, as we have to take into account the sharply increased procurement costs in our pricing.” Nothing will change for existing customers.
EWS Schönau already raised prices for private customers in autumn and wants to protect its existing customers from further price increases by stopping new customers. Green Planet Energy argues similarly.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
An understandable procedure for Udo Sieverding, energy expert at the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer center: “That is quite understandable, since new customer tariffs are significantly higher in view of the high prices for energy procurement,” he says. “Some providers seem to be waiting for this turbulent special situation on the energy market first. This is a business decision that is regrettable, but not objectionable. ”The special tariffs for new customers have also been suspended by a number of municipal utilities.
“A higher tariff level will probably be established”
The larger providers, who recently stopped acquiring new customers, are bioenergy suppliers. Obtaining biogas is particularly difficult at the moment, because not only energy suppliers ask for biomethane. Fuel traders are buying the market empty because they can use biomethane to meet the EU’s greenhouse gas quotas so that they are greener.
In recent weeks and months, however, it has already hit larger regular energy suppliers: In mid-October, the energy supplier EnBW was temporarily no longer listed as a gas supplier on comparison portals, and the Essen-based Eon group had temporarily stopped its new business with private customers.
At the beginning of December, the Gas.de and Grünwelt Energie brands even announced a delivery stop for their customers and thus terminated natural gas supply contracts retrospectively. Shortly afterwards, the electricity discounter Stromio was also no longer able to supply customers, which also affected Grünwelt Energie’s electricity customers – the network operators had terminated their contracts with the companies.
According to the Federal Network Agency, at least 38 providers had indicated by the end of last year that they wanted to end the electricity supply. The customers fell into the mostly more expensive basic service. The Federal Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection pointed out on Wednesday that customers do not have to accept the price increases. “From our point of view, the supplier who gives notice of termination is committing a breach of contract,” said a ministry spokesman in Berlin on Wednesday.
The terminated customers would now have the right to “pay the same price for the electricity” as “as they would have agreed with their first supplier, the main supplier”. In the event of price increases, the terminating provider was obliged to “pay the customer compensation,” the spokesman continued. Electricity customers could make a corresponding demand on the former provider.
The situation could continue for a while: “I assume that the situation will remain tense for a few more weeks,” said Sieverding from the consumer advice center. “Towards the spring, electricity prices should fall, the prospects for gas are more uncertain.”
Consumers shouldn’t expect relief anytime soon. “Ultimately, many sales organizations will reposition themselves after the market consolidation and a higher tariff level will presumably be established in the process,” says Sieverding. “It is all the more important that the intensity of competition increases again and that the current tendency towards dominant positions of individual suppliers is broken.”
More: Electricity and gas prices are rising drastically: Why consumers now have to react quickly
