As of: March 15, 2024, 6:00 p.m
By: Lars-Eric Nievelstein
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The energy transition is progressing slowly.
Too many consumers are still dependent on oil and gas heating.
An energy supplier warns of skyrocketing costs.
Munich – Is the energy transition underway?
No, the Federal Audit Office found just this week.
The Bavarian Business Association (vbw) came to a similar conclusion in the 12th energy monitoring.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) shot back that the Federal Audit Office's figures had “nothing to do with reality”.
Bastian Gierull, Germany boss of the energy supplier Octopus Energy, has now warned of an explosion in the costs of oil and gas heating.
Energy transition – provider criticizes price increases at German energy companies
Octopus Energy currently operates wind turbines in both Great Britain and Germany and is developing low-cost heat pumps in Northern Ireland.
One of the special features of wind turbines is that a so-called smart meter can reduce electricity prices live as soon as the wind blows stronger and the energy yield is corresponding.
“If the energy transition becomes a luxury product, we will fail” © IMAGO / Andreas Franke
Gierull criticized the local energy providers to
n-tv
in clear terms: They were lured with lure offers and then “pushed into ever more expensive tariffs”.
Existing customers pay between ten and 20 cents per kilowatt hour more than they would with new tariffs.
For some providers, this is even part of the business model.
There is a risk of “drastic” hearings in the following years.
Customers are allowed to change provider immediately in the event of unscheduled increases, but many would not know that.
“Anyone who bought an oil or gas heater was lied to,” says Gierull.
A recently published analysis at least shows the significant increase in costs.
Consumers are already struggling with significant price increases.
This was shown by a recent study by the comparison portal Verivox.
A model household with three people currently pays around 1,500 euros more for oil, gas, fuel and electricity than in February 2021. Thorsten Strock from Verivox recommends comparing tariffs.
“Since many new contracts for electricity and gas are currently cheaper, consumers should check whether they can switch to a good and cheaper provider,” said Ramona Pop from the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations.
Flexible energy consumption – an option for the future
In an interview with
n-tv
, Gierull stated what the implementation of renewable energies would look like in the best case scenario.
“I can’t turn renewables on and off,” he explained.
Production is flexible, so consumption must also be more flexible.
Here's an example: Consumers who connect a smart meter to the wind turbine to which they are connected can increase their electricity consumption as soon as there is a lot of wind, i.e. the energy is cheaper.
On the other hand, if there is no wind, they may decide to simply run the dishwasher later.
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Apps that send a message to the smartphone could help.
In this way, they could inform you that electricity only costs half as much because of high winds, for example.
However, if electricity production declines, consumption would also have to fall.
Are renewable energies still too expensive?
However, there is currently still the problem that the required technology (e.g. smart meters or heat pumps) is too expensive.
“If the energy transition becomes a luxury product, we will fail,” warned Gierull.
It has to happen faster and cheaper so that everyone benefits.
People who have invested in new oil and gas heating systems in recent months are facing a real cost explosion.
Gierull expects a significant increase in additional costs in the future.
In ten to 20 years it should “really hurt”.
The price explosion would promote energy poverty.
Energy transition at zero cost – things can’t go on like this
The energy transition requires considerable cost effort anyway.
“We now have to do again within six years what we have achieved in the last 13 years,” said Dr.
Almut Kirchner at the vbw press conference on monitoring the energy transition.
In Bavaria, for example, the pace of wind energy expansion must increase twentyfold.
Leonard Birnbaum, CEO of the energy giant Eon, had also warned of rising prices.
The country needs more green electricity systems, which in turn require integration with the electricity grid.
For this to happen, the network expansion would have to work “faster and more intelligently”, and then reserve capacities would also be needed.
“We were always told that the sun didn’t send an invoice, so everything was free,” the Eon boss explained to the
Süddeutsche Zeitung
.
But at Eon it was always clear that things would turn out differently.
The energy transition cannot happen at “zero tariff”.