Municipal utilities are already massively increasing prices

Dusseldorf For the customers of the Cologne-based energy supplier Rheinenergie, the shock runs deep: natural gas prices rose by more than 116 percent on October 1st. “We have additional expenses of over 700 million euros on the gas purchasing side,” Rheinenergie Sales Director Achim Südmeier justifies the decision in the podcast Handelsblatt Green. One is now forced to pass this on to its customers, the situation is “very tense”.

The Cologne utility was the first of the large municipal utilities to massively increase its tariffs. Stadtwerke Wuppertal and Energieversorgung Oberhausen (EVO) have already announced significant price increases.

In the future, EVO customers will pay 14.49 cents (plus 33 percent) per kilowatt hour (kWh) in the basic supply tariff. At Stadtwerke Wuppertal it is 50 percent more. The leader, however, remains the supplier Rheinenergie with 18.3 cents per kWh.

“There is a larger wave of price increases,” says energy expert Udo Sieverding from the consumer center in North Rhine-Westphalia. “Many municipal utilities will definitely follow suit.”