Enlarge image
Thermostat on a gas heater: It's better to turn it down a bit
Photo: Sven Hoppe/dpa
Energy costs in Germany are high and lead to great burdens for citizens. But the drastic prices last year also led to a more economical use of electricity and gas. According to figures from the Federal Network Agency, German private households significantly reduced their consumption. They used 5.6 percent less gas and 5.1 percent less electricity than in 2022.
The savings resulted in households paying over €4.3 billion less to their utilities than they would have had to transfer without savings.
The state also benefited from the thrift of its citizens. Last year, the federal government's energy price brakes took effect. From a price of 40 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity and 12 cents for gas, the state covered the costs, at least for 80 percent of the amount consumed. Due to the lower consumption, the federal government had to spend around 735 million euros less on the energy price brake. This relieved the burden on the Economic and Stabilization Fund, a special federal fund from which state aid for energy consumers was financed.
In 2022, at the height of the energy crisis triggered by the Ukraine war, gas consumption fell even further, by 19 percent compared to the previous year, and electricity consumption by at least 5.7 percent. The President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, has seen a stable trend for more than two years. “The last two winters were comparatively mild, and private households are still reacting sensitively to the high price level,” says Müller. The advice and information offers on energy saving have also been used dramatically more since the start of the Ukrainian war. “The resulting small and large investments in insulation or the purchase of more efficient devices are now increasingly paying off in electricity and gas bills,” said the head of the Federal Network Agency.
gt