Experts astonished

Germans are paying billions too much for electricity

(Bild: gopixa - stock.adobe.com)

According to the comparison portal Verivox, private households in Germany are paying more than five billion euros too much this year due to a lack of willingness to switch electricity providers. Almost a quarter of households in Germany are still paying the basic supply tariff from their local supplier - by far the most expensive tariff group.

Because these approximately 10 million households do not bother to change their electricity provider or find a cheaper tariff with their current supplier, they are paying almost 5.5 billion euros too much this year, as Verivox reported on Sunday in Heidelberg.

Electricity available up to 44% cheaper than basic supply tariff
According to the information, the basic supply tariff of the local electricity supplier is available to all households that do not look for a cheaper offer when building a house or moving in. The advantage of the basic supply tariff: It is available to all customers and can be terminated at any time. The major disadvantage is that it is very expensive. A kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity in the basic supply tariff currently costs 44.36 cents on average in Germany. In the cheapest available tariff with a price guarantee, the average price in Germany is currently 24.7 cents/kWh. Households on the basic supply tariff could therefore obtain their electricity around 44 percent cheaper.

In 2022, around 27.9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity were supplied to households in the basic supply, writes Verivox, referring to the latest monitoring report from the Federal Network Agency. Based on this consumption volume, basic supply customers will pay around 12.4 billion euros for electricity in 2024, according to the report. In contrast, the cheapest tariff would only incur electricity costs of 6.9 billion euros, which would correspond to savings of around 5.5 billion euros. "

Staying with the most expensive tariff "astonishing" for experts
For more than 25 years, households in Germany have been free to choose their electricity provider. The fact that almost a quarter of electricity customers voluntarily remain on the most expensive tariff is astonishing," said Thorsten Storck, energy expert at Verivox.