A GA reader, for example, was quite astonished when she received a notice from her Bonn energy retailer Knauber in October that the gross energy price for a kilowatt hour of gas was to increase two and a half times to 11.03 cents as of December 1. While the basic price will drop slightly, she will still end up with an increase of 137 percent if she includes her current annual consumption. Another Knauber customer is also to pay over 100 percent more for gas from January. "The procurement costs for energy have increased by about 450 percent in the last year," the company told GA in response to a question. "However, through our prudent portfolio management in this extreme situation, we managed to absorb the peak prices and did not have to pass them on to our customers."

The comparison portal Check24 gives the average gas price in the basic supply for a sample household (20,000 kilowatt hours per year) in October as 1,532 euros, an increase of almost eight percent compared to the previous year. At Knauber, the reader would have to pay around 2,400 euros for the same amount from December onwards; the last annual bill was only about 1,000 Euro. However, until June she was on a tariff with a "limited price guarantee", which had expired in the meantime. "Limited" means: changes in taxes and charges can still be passed on in the guaranteed period.

"Many suppliers offer such a guarantee," reports Florian Stark of Check24. "The guarantee does no harm," says the NRW consumer centre. However, consumers would have to check exactly which components the price guarantee includes, because they can differ depending on the tariff. In any case, it can help to protect oneself from high procurement prices: "If you find a favourable tariff with a price guarantee, you should take it," says the consumer advice centre.

The Knauber customers who sent the GA their price adjustment notices were in both cases offered the "Knauber Erdgas Sicher 12" tariff, which includes a limited price guarantee for twelve months. Knauber informs that it is possible to switch to another tariff. "The long-term tariffs are currently cheaper than the short-term ones, as the coming winter is the most expensive procurement period. In a personal consultation, we naturally offer our customers a change from the Sicher 12 tariff to the longer-term Sicher 24 or Sicher 36 tariffs to give them a cheaper price." These tariffs have a term of 24 and 36 months respectively. This offer has been well received so far.

In general, the customer has a special right of termination in case of price increases. The consumer advice centre advises customers to inform themselves about alternatives on comparison portals on the internet such as Check24 or Verivox, but gives a few tips. It is important to use the filter functions, for example, so that the bonus is not included in the calculation. Often, a tariff is only so cheap because it includes a one-time switching bonus. This makes it difficult to compare the annual costs.

Also, one should not only be shown tariffs that can be booked directly via the portal. Caution is also advised with online-only tariffs, as there is no personal advice on the phone. "Therefore, only choose an online tariff if you read your emails regularly and can do without personal service."

Currently, customers of basic suppliers have an advantage partly because they have a different purchasing policy: They supply themselves with multi-year supply contracts, while alternative suppliers buy their energy more often at short notice on the Leipzig spot market. "There are no rules for the purchasing strategy of energy companies, it's a bet on the future," explains Stark from Check24. According to him, the wholesale price for a megawatt hour has jumped from 14.18 euros to 94.05 euros within a year.

Energieversorgung Mittelrhein says it will have to increase gas prices for new customers from January 2022: Basic supply tariffs will be increased by 1.18 cents gross per kilowatt hour, i.e. from 9.13 cents to 10.31 cents gross. The basic price will remain unchanged. There is good news for existing customers: "For natural gas, we can guarantee our existing customers price stability for the whole of 2022. They benefit from our long-term purchasing strategy," says press spokesman Marcelo Peerenboom. Electricity prices will not rise next year, neither for existing nor for new customers.

BHAG advises that it will increase its gas prices by about 30 percent from January 1, 2022. Daniela Paffhausen, Head of Marketing, gives some reasons for this: "The unusually long winter of 2020/2021, the increased global demand for natural gas in the wake of the economic recovery after the Corona pandemic, capacity bottlenecks in the supply of gas to Europe and the resulting low filling levels of gas storage facilities are factors that we cannot compensate for." In addition, the increase in the CO2 price also has an influence on gas pricing. Paffhausen also gave figures on procurement costs for BHAG: "After energy procurement costs for BHAG had been relatively constant in recent years, since the beginning of the year prices for long-term procurement have almost doubled and for short-term procurement they have even almost tripled, and for gas they have even more than tripled. The electricity price structure for 2022 has not yet been clarified.

According to their own statements, prices at SWB will remain stable over the turn of the year. "Due to our long-term procurement strategies, we are likely to be able to cushion the exorbitantly increased purchase prices for our existing customers," a spokesperson told the GA in response to an enquiry. However, the municipal utility had already increased its prices on 1 October.

According to a company spokesperson, Rhenag will raise its gas prices on January 1, 2022: "In the case of natural gas, we can cushion the price explosion on the stock exchanges - quotations here have quadrupled at times since the beginning of the year - through our long-term procurement, but not completely absorb it," the supplier announced. The company did not want to give exact figures on request. Rhenag was able to keep the electricity price stable.

This supplier describes price increases for natural gas in the new year as "unavoidable". E-Regio is raising the consumption prices for basic gas supply by about 35 percent, based on a standard consumption of about 20,000 kilowatt hours per year. "We advise our existing customers in the basic supply about possibilities to change to a cheaper tariff," says Ilona Schäfer, team leader for communication. However, due to the decreasing EEG surcharge at the turn of the year, the supplier has good news for electricity customers: There will be no price increase for them, "but even a reduction in the basic supply and the special tariffs.“

The energy price increases are slightly noticeable at Troisdorf Stadtwerke: "Due to the strong increase in procurement prices, we also cannot avoid moderately raising our gas prices at the beginning of the coming year. Compared to many other suppliers, however, the adjustment will be significantly lower, averaging a good six percent," reports Silke Schmitz from Corporate Communications. The company is able to keep electricity prices stable for tariff customers.

According to a press release of the comparison portal Check24, almost 270 basic gas and electricity suppliers have increased their prices or announced increases.

According to Check24, some basic gas suppliers have doubled their prices. On average, the increases would amount to 20 percent and affect 1.4 million households. "For a sample household with a consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours, this means additional costs of 304 euros per year on average," the statement said. For electricity, the price increase is 8.2 percent on average. About one million households are affected, according to Check24.

(Original text: Marie Schneider and Ulla Thiede / Translation: Mareike Graepel)