Dachau: cost shock for new municipal utility customers

Created: 01/10/2022, 8:00 PM

From: Stefanie Zipfer

Anyone looking for a new electricity provider in Dachau has a problem.

Low-cost providers are disappearing from the market, and the municipal utilities have to demand high tariffs from new customers.

© Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez / dpa

Stadtwerke Dachau, as a so-called basic supplier, has to fulfill its legal obligation and supply expensive electricity to those who have previously terminated their contracts due to low profitability.

This means a price shock for new Stadtwerke customers.

Dachau

- The prices on the electricity markets had literally exploded in the past few weeks. The result: low-cost providers like Stromio, who previously bought their electricity cheaply on the so-called spot markets, i.e. the short-term electricity exchanges, can no longer work profitably; they therefore terminate their customers' contracts or go bankrupt.

So that the lights do not go out for these former discounter customers, the local basic suppliers, i.e. the electricity providers with most customers, are legally obliged to supply these electricity lots with energy.

In the case of Stadtwerke Dachau, this means: According to sales manager Christian Diecke, 290 former Stromio customers as well as almost 100 other customers from other electricity discounters who have run into a tailspin have been added to the existing Stadtwerke customers since December 23.

Since the municipal utilities make long-term calculations and - unlike the discounters - do not buy three quarters of their electricity at the daily markets, but rather long-term with a fixed amount and a fixed price, the around 400 newcomers pose a problem. Because: “We don't have these amounts of electricity .

So we have to buy them on the stock exchange on a daily basis, ”says Diecke.

And that's expensive! With prices around 55 cents, a kilowatt hour of electricity costs ten times as much as it did just a few months ago. According to the Diecke municipal utilities, the question “What are we going to do now?” Was answered as follows: “So that existing customers can keep their price, we had to offer our own tariffs for new customers.” The old customers, on the other hand, should be allowed to keep their price.

In figures, this means: a former Stromio customer now pays 70.13 cents per kilowatt hour at the municipal utilities, whereas a long-term municipal utility customer is only charged with 32.17 cents.

Whereby Diecke emphasizes: The situation at the Dachauer Stadtwerke is still comparatively good thanks to the 25 percent in-house production - mainly from hydropower - and the multi-year procurement strategy.

Other public utilities, Diecke emphasizes, would be even more dependent on the electricity market and would have to buy even more electricity.

In the district, the situation of customers affected by terminations is different. With the exception of Haimhausen, all other district communities are supplied by the electricity giant Eon, which, according to spokesman Arne Schleef, does not currently charge different prices for the basic supply for old and new customers.

Schleef also emphasizes that the current situation is "historically unique on the energy markets" and that "some discount providers are shirking their responsibility in this difficult market situation".

In order to supply those in need with electricity, Eon now also has to “procure the greater part of the energy according to the current market conditions”, which is why the company would very much appreciate it if “politicians now take their responsibility to calm things down to contribute to the energy markets ”.

Diecke puts it this way: “Eon, as a large multinational corporation that operates worldwide, can put it away, we as medium-sized companies can't.” This is the only way for the giant, both for old customers and for new customers in the district who rely on basic services Dachau to charge 30.21 cents per kilowatt hour.

What Diecke would like for the future: That the Federal Network Agency should pay more attention to the economic performance of low-cost electricity providers from the outset. And that customers also know that electricity is a valuable commodity. In any case, the municipal utilities will "continue to monitor" the situation in the hope of being able to offer new customers a cheaper tariff soon. What is certain is that "we will not enrich ourselves with new customers," said the Stadtwerke man. If electricity on the exchange costs 55 cents per kilowatt hour and there are also various network and metering fees, levies, levies and taxes, the 70.13 cents invoiced to customers are almost "purchase price equals sales price".

According to Diecke, however, the basic problem is not the cheap providers anyway, but the fact that “we have too little electricity in Germany”.

If functioning power plants have to be taken off the grid for expensive money and new power plants built for even more expensive money, then, according to Diecke, "economically just insane".

In any case, the municipal utilities have stopped acquiring new customers for the time being.