The price of electricity will slip into the red in 2023 – but it will remain expensive for consumers
Created: 01/04/2023 05:17
By: Fabian Raddatz
Providers have increased the electricity prices for millions of Germans at the turn of the year, on the stock exchange it has now fallen.
Above all, foreign countries benefited.
The recent stormy weather caused falling electricity prices in Germany, while at the same time energy could be saved thanks to the mild temperatures.
On the electricity price exchange in Leipzig, the electricity price has even slipped into the red in the past few days, as
Focus Online
reports.
However, consumers would not benefit from this.
In the coming year, the electricity price brake should take effect.
© Christoph Schmidt/dpa
The opposite is the case: more than seven million Germans are affected by the increases in electricity prices at the beginning of the year.
Providers sometimes drastically increased their prices.
A two-person household in Munich with a consumption of 2500 kilowatt hours can expect an increase in expenditure of around 923 euros.
The price of electricity will fall into the red in 2023 – but it will remain expensive for consumers
Experts attribute the fall in electricity prices to wind turbines.
“Exchange electricity prices are subject to considerable fluctuations.
On January 1, 2023, power consumption was low and generation from renewable energies was high,” energy expert Bruno Burger from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems told
Focus Online
.
So it was possible that the electricity price was almost zero and sometimes even slipped slightly into the red.
The approximately 30,000 wind turbines in Germany have been running at full speed due to the stormy weather in the past few days and have thus produced more electricity than required.
As a result, the very high proportion of wind energy produced pushed the price down.
When purchasing electricity, it was even possible to earn up to 5 cents per kilowatt hour.
At times, the prices on the spot market were up to 15 times cheaper than the selling prices of the electricity suppliers in Germany.
"A phenomenon that will occur more frequently with the expansion of sun and wind," wrote the President of the Federal Association of Renewable Energies, Simone Peter, on Twitter.
German cheap electricity mainly went abroad
The fall in gas prices was also responsible for the drop in electricity prices: shortly before New Year's Eve they were around 7.0 cents per kilowatt hour – the price had halved since mid-December.
In addition, low demand from industry at the turn of the year caused the price of electricity to fall.
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A large part of the cheap electricity produced in Germany went abroad: suppliers and industries in neighboring countries such as Denmark, Belgium and Austria stocked up on the electricity.
Expert Burger explained to
Focus Online
: "The pricing on the stock exchange is done by the merit order."
The first to be used are the cheap renewable energies.
There is no need for expensive gas-fired power plants "if they produce a lot and at the same time the consumption is low," says Burger.
The price of electricity will fall into the red in 2023 – but it will remain expensive for consumers
Consumers are not benefiting from the low electricity prices for the time being.
You are advised to be patient.
Even if the electricity price is expected to stabilize in the new year, experts estimate that it will not reach the 2021 level.
In addition, the cheap purchase price for electricity is only gradually reaching consumers.
However, the exchange would show where the electricity price is going in the future.
The delay in passing on the price to the consumer arises because the electricity providers do not constantly adapt their offer to the prices on the spot market.
The price fixing only applies when the contract is concluded.
The price is then adjusted once a year.
This means that consumers only benefit when the electricity prices are calculated for the coming year if the providers save on electricity when purchasing a contingent.
Burger: "First of all, the companies or municipal utilities that buy the electricity directly on the exchange benefit from the low prices on the electricity exchange." This usually happens in a mix of different sources (OTC, day-ahead, futures) - also , since electricity prices on the exchange are subject to strong fluctuations.
“The prices on the exchange were already at €600/MWh or 60 cents/kWh.
If you only buy electricity on the exchange, you are taking a high risk,” warns Burger.
