The difficult gas supply situation is increasingly reflected in higher gas prices.

On the Leipzig energy exchange EEX, the listing for the European Gas Spot Index rose to EUR 215 per megawatt hour of gas on Thursday.

That was another 7 percent more than the day before and a whopping 32 percent more than a week ago.

Daniel Mohr

Editor in Business.

  • Follow I follow

The spot price is relevant for all gas buyers who have not secured enough gas through long-term supply contracts, but now have to buy additional gas on a daily basis.

The corresponding prices have increased more than tenfold since the beginning of 2021.

Wholesale gas in Germany currently costs around 210 euros per megawatt hour.

Here, too, the increase compared to the previous week is more than 30 percent.

Compared to June, it's even 150 percent more.

Only in early March, shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, was gas briefly similarly expensive.

This is bad news for consumers in Germany.

It is true that not all gas suppliers have to buy their gas at the currently extremely expensive spot prices.

Many have longer-term supply agreements at lower prices, and not all are dependent on Russian gas.

But the case of the importer Uniper, which is particularly dependent on Russia, shows that there are also relevant suppliers who have put almost everything on one card at high risk and now have to buy gas very expensively without sufficient supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and can no longer survive without state support would be.

Ten times the spot price

The tenfold increase in the spot price for gas will not reach consumers one-to-one.

However, it sets out a general trend, and this shows that things are getting even more expensive.

The comparison portal Verivox has developed a gas index that provides a good overview of what private customers have to pay for gas.

Including taxes, duties and the monthly basic price, the current gas price is 16 cents per kilowatt hour.

Assuming an annual consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours for an average household, this results in an average annual bill of 3,200 euros.

That's 2,000 euros more than a year ago.

For years, the gas price had stably demanded around 6 cents per kilowatt hour from consumers, which is 1,200 euros a year or 100 euros a month.

The bad news: Consumer prices will be even higher in the future.

The 16 cents determined by Verivox are an average that many suppliers still include who have not yet had to increase their prices due to favorable long-term supply contracts.

However, all supply contracts are finite and must be renewed at some point at significantly higher costs, which are then passed on to private households.

A new increase in costs is already looming in the autumn if the federal government introduces a gas surcharge for all customers as planned.

From October onwards, around 2 cents per kilowatt hour are currently expected.

However, the exact amount will not be determined until August.

The gas buyers who, like Uniper at the moment, have to buy gas at particularly high costs due to bad supply contracts, should then receive an above-average amount of money from the pot.

The bottom line is that the customers of far-sighted suppliers, who should have increased their prices only slightly, are financing the customers of suppliers with particularly bad supply contracts.

This levy will cost the usual private household about 400 euros per year if the levy is 2 cents.

Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) put the possible framework at up to 5 cents per kilowatt hour, which would be 1000 euros a year or almost 170 euros a month.

Anyone who receives a price increase from their supplier has a special right of termination and can change suppliers.

A price comparison should definitely be made here.

The price differences are particularly high at the moment.

However, bargain hunters must be disappointed.

If you look at the new customer market, you will not find a particularly large selection of offers and for 20,000 kilowatt hours you will often only see prices of around 5000 euros per year, which is significantly more than the current average price of 3200 euros that Verivox has determined.

This shows that the average price still includes many basic suppliers with comparatively low tariffs.

They have a fixed customer base and were therefore able to calculate their purchases better than national gas suppliers, who have many customers who change suppliers who come quickly

but can also disappear again.

Therefore, these providers have not secured large quantities of gas in the long term.

If you are on a comparatively cheap tariff with your basic supplier, you can be happy and do not have to do anything at the moment, but you should know that there is a risk of a price increase at any time if the purchasing conditions for your provider have worsened.

Price increases are possible with six weeks' notice if the customer has no price guarantee in his contract.