Press release No. 144 of 1 April 2022

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office, the average household price for natural gas was 6.83 cent per kilowatt-hour in the second half year 2021. The average household electricity price in the second half year 2021 was 32.87 cent per kilowatt-hour. Compared to the first half of the year of 2021, gas prices rose by 6.6 % whereas electricity prices increased only slightly by 0.8 %.

Natural gas and electricity prices develop inconsistently for private households

The rise in wholesale energy costs for natural gas was also clearly felt by households as early as the second half of 2021. At 9.06 cents per kilowatt hour, in particular small household consumers with annual consumption of less than 20 gigajoules paid significantly more than in the first half of the year (+9.6%). This was due to Energy and supply costs which increased by 26.5%. Consumers with annual consumption of more than 200 gigajoules were less affected, paying only 1.7% more for natural gas than in the first half of the year (energy and supply: + 1.5 %). Consumers with an annual consumption between 20 and 200 gigajoules were faced with a price increase of 7.0 % (energy and supply: + 11.0 %).

At 0.8%, electricity prices for private households rose only slightly compared with the first half of 2021. As in the case of natural gas, the highest price increase for electricity (+ 3.3%) occurred among households with the lowest consumption of less than 1 000 kilowatt hours. Private consumers with an annual consumption of more than 15 000 kilowatt hours paid an average of 25.1 cents per kilowatt hour, 1.5% less than in the first half of the year.

Household electricity and natural gas prices in cent per kWh

	2. half year 2021				1. half year 2021
Annual consumption from … to less than …	Total price	Energy and supply	Network costs	Taxes, fees, levies and charges	Total price
natural gas
Less than 20 GJ	9.06	4.06	2.41	2.59	8.27
20 GJ – 200 GJ	6.92	3.14	1.60	2.18	6.47
200 GJ and more	5.95	2.64	1.28	2.03	5.85
overall	6.83	3.08	1.57	2.17	6.41
electricity
Less than 1 000 kWh	47.56	12.36	16.16	19.03	46.06
1 000 kWh – 2 500 kWh	35.88	9.25	9.53	17.10	35.27
2 500 kWh – 5 000 kWh	32.34	8.17	7.79	16.38	31.93
5 000 kWh – 15 000 kWh	29.41	7.49	6.28	15.64	29.24
15 000 kWh and more	25.10	5.77	4.81	14.52	25.49
overall	32.87	8.34	8.13	16.40	32.62

Large price increases for non-household customers

The average natural gas price for non-households (for example, enterprises or public offices) without value added taxes (VAT) and other recoverable taxes was 4.63 cent per kilowatt-hour. This was 51.8% more than in the first half year of 2021. Non-household customers with low annual consumption of between 1 000 and 10 000 gigajoules had to pay 4.45 cents per kilowatt-hour, 9.9% more than in the first half of the year. In contrast, consumers with an annual consumption of over 4 million gigajoules paid 126.3% more than in the first half of the year and, at 5.68 cents per kilowatt-hour, even significantly more than smaller consumers. Due to the generally shorter-term procurement strategies of large consumers, with only short price commitments, the massive price increases in wholesale and on the natural gas exchanges since the end of 2020 had a much greater impact on these consumer groups than on consumers with smaller annual consumption.

Non-household customers paid an average of 16.65 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity in the second half year of 2021, excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes. Compared with the first half year of 2021 electricity prices increased by 11.7 %. It is also evident in the case of electricity that large consumers were more affected by the price increases on the energy exchanges in 2021. Consumers with annual consumption of over 150 000 megawatt hours paid 48.6% more than in the first half of the year. For annual consumption of less than 20 megawatt hours per year consumers had to pay only 2.1% more on average.

Non-household electricity and gas prices without VAT and other recoverable taxes in cent per kWh

	2. half year 2021				1. half year 2021
Annual consumption from … to less than …	Total price	Energy and supply	Network costs	Taxes, fees, levies and charges	Total price
natural gas
less than 1 000 GJ	5.45	3.01	1.41	1.04	4.70
1 000 GJ – 10 000 GJ	4.45	2.34	1.14	0.97	4.05
10 000 GJ – 100 000 GJ	3.79	2.31	0.66	0.82	3.19
100 000 GJ – 1 000 000 GJ	3.85	2.90	0.31	0.64	2.65
1 000 000 GJ – 4 000 000 GJ	4.61	4.00	0.14	0.47	2.37
4 000 000 GJ and more	5.68	5.06	0.11	0.50	2.51
overall	4.63	3.45	0.49	0.68	3.05
electricity
less than 20 MWh	25.44	7.29	7.15	11.00	24.92
20 MWh - 500 MWh	20.73	5.39	5.35	9.99	20.43
500 MWh – 2 000 MWh	18.60	5.39	4.28	8.93	18.13
2 000 MWh – 20 000 MWh	16.42	5.81	3.16	7.45	15.01
20 000 MWh - 70 000 MWh	13.49	6.02	1.84	5.63	12.67
70 000 MWh – 150 000 MWh	13.47	6.13	1.19	6.14	11.49
150 000 MWh and more	13.11	8.69	1.12	3.29	8.82
overall	16.65	6.39	3.17	7.10	14.90