BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - According to an evaluation of the comparison portal Verivox, there is a large East-West gap in electricity prices. According to the report, the electricity prices of local suppliers in eastern Germany are 15 percent higher than in the west. East German households profited accordingly strongly from the national electricity price brake.

The state electricity price brake has been in effect since March in view of price jumps last year. The electricity price for private consumers and small and medium-sized companies is capped at 40 cents per kilowatt hour gross. This applies to a demand of 80 percent of the forecast consumption.

The electricity price brake reduces costs in the east by an average of 331 euros, and in western Germany by an average of 160 euros, as Verivox told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Accordingly, the electricity prices for a model household with a consumption of 4000 kilowatt hours in the basic supply in eastern Germany without taking into account the price brake are currently 2154 euros per year - in western Germany at 1878 euros. The price gap at the expense of the east is thereby as high as never before.

Verivox energy expert Thorsten Storck said, "The large electricity price differences between east and west can be explained in part by the increase in electricity grid fees." At the turn of the year, he said, the costs of operating, maintaining and expanding the electricity grid had risen by an average of 14 percent in western Germany and 25 percent in eastern Germany. Cause for the regionally differently high net fees are factors such as industry and population density, in addition, the costs of the development of renewable energies.

According to evaluation of the portal at present the highest electricity prices are due in the basic supply in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - the annual electricity bill for a consumption of 4000 kilowatt hours lies with 2350 euro. That is scarcely 56 per cent more than in the most favorable Land Bremen. Evaluated according to portal the current prices valid in April in the basic supply for the respective Lands of the Federal Republic. Basic supplier is the power supplier, who supplies in a net area most households with river. According to the Federal Network Agency, in 2021 almost one in four household customers (24 percent) was in the basic supply for both gas and electricity./hoe/DP/zb