Electricity: rush of customers at the Munich public utility company - SWM makes big promises

Created: 01/18/2022, 10:42 am

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Hydroelectric power station Isar: After the wave of terminations by cheap electricity providers, the Munich public utility company is experiencing a rush of customers.

© SWM

After the wave of terminations by cheap electricity providers, hundreds of thousands of Germans are dependent on the local basic supplier for electricity and gas.

The Munich basic supplier SWM makes a clear statement.

Munich - Those who wanted to save are now being punished: In recent years, more and more cheap electricity providers have attracted droves of customers with low tariffs.

At the end of the year, however, large energy discounters such as Stromio*, Grünwelt and Gas.de stated that they would stop supplying electricity and gas due to the high procurement prices.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans were suddenly left without their previous electricity provider.

More expensive electricity tariffs for new customers

They now fall into the basic supply of the local electricity provider.

They are legally obliged to ensure the electricity supply in their basic supply area.

But they also have to fight the high prices on the market - and buy additional electricity for the numerous new customers - at significantly higher costs.

The Cologne-based electricity provider and basic supplier Rheinenergie has therefore introduced another basic tariff for new customers.

According to the

, new customers there pay around 20 cents more per kilowatt hour than existing customers, which translates into a whopping price increase of over 40 percent.

The provider is not alone in this.

For many ex-customers of the discounters, this means: you have to pay extra.

Thousands of new customers for the SWM in Munich

For the Bavarian capital and parts of the metropolitan region, the Munich municipal utility (SWM) is the basic supplier.

However, a look at the SWM website shows that the situation there is not likely to look rosy either.

Anyone who would like to conclude a tariff here is asked to be patient by SWM: "Please understand that we are currently not offering any electricity tariffs due to the sharp rise in procurement prices" (as of January 17, 2022, 3:30 p.m ), is written there.

Press spokesman Michael Silva told

that you cannot currently conclude a tariff online with SWM – but that is still possible by phone.

But he can reassure the people of Munich who have slipped into basic service: "New customers don't have to pay higher tariffs with us."

Because the SWM also recorded a rush.

Silva speaks of "several thousand new customers".

This also forced SWM to buy additional expensive electricity.

However, they do not want to pass these costs on to customers.

However, the electricity provider already increased the tariffs in January.

An average household in Munich (two people, 2,500 kilowatt hours) now pays about four euros more per month.

Scheer: "Energy supply is a service of general interest"

Consumer advocates are not only becoming annoyed with the cheap electricity providers who have kicked out their customers, but also with displeasure at the possible disadvantages for new customers. Holger Schneidewindt from the North Rhine-Westphalia consumer advice center considers the procedure to be legally dubious and advises those affected to appeal if they have to pay higher tariffs for the basic service. "Because the protective purpose of the basic service is also protection against energy poverty," said Schneidewindt to

.

Also in politics - especially in the SPD and the Union - in the course of the sharp increase in electricity prices, there is discussion about regulating discount suppliers of electricity* and gas more closely.

"Energy supply is a service of general interest," said SPD energy politician Nina Scheer to the

.

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