KARLSRUHE (dpa-AFX) - Many households will have to pay significantly more for their electricity from April. The energy supplier EnBW, which has around 5.5 million customers, is raising electricity prices by 15.9 percent. One cost driver is the increase in grid fees for household electricity, the Karlsruhe-based company announced on Tuesday. "At the same time, state levies, levies and taxes have also increased overall, which are also part of the electricity price for households."

The electricity price increase applies to the basic and replacement supply, EnBW announced. For heat electricity customers with shared metering, the prices will increase by 4.5 percent. "With the price measure as of April 1, 2024, the price for household electricity from EnBW in the basic and replacement supply is currently slightly above the average price on the market," wrote the utility company. For a household with an annual consumption of 2,900 kilowatt hours, this would mean additional costs of around 16 euros per month.

In the wake of the Federal Constitutional Court's budget ruling, the traffic light coalition decided in December to cancel the federal subsidy of 5.5 billion euros for grid fees in 2024. The four major transmission system operators Tennet, Amprion, 50Hertz and TransnetW then announced that they would more than double their grid fees from 3.1 to 6.4 cents per kilowatt hour at the turn of the year. The grid fees are usually passed on to the electricity prices.

Price increase and billions in profits

"The last price adjustment for household electricity in the basic and replacement supply dates back to October 2022," explained Volker Bloch, responsible for sales at EnBW. "Overall, we were able to significantly cushion the enormous cost increases of recent times and guarantee fair prices well below the market average." The company has no influence on the biggest cost drivers. "However, it is also a fact that the costs for procuring gas and electricity at the exchanges are still at a high level compared to the prices before the energy crisis began."

In principle, business is going well for Germany's third-largest energy supplier: in 2022, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to 3.29 billion euros - an increase of 11 percent compared to the previous year. According to the latest forecast, the Group expects an increase to up to 6.5 billion euros in 2023. The balance sheet for the past financial year is to be presented at the end of March.

EnBW intends to use the profits to invest in areas such as the expansion of renewable energies, the grid and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and climate-friendly, low-carbon generation. In this decade, 50 billion euros are to be invested in Energiewende projects, more than 80 percent of which will be invested in Germany. "Investments are needed to ensure the success of the energy transition and the restructuring of the energy system," said Bloch. Customers in particular will benefit from this.

EnBW CEO Andreas Schell recently showed understanding for the annoyance caused by high energy costs. "It is important that we take people with us and give them confidence and stability again," he told the Stuttgarter Zeitung and Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspapers. It is important to state the facts clearly: "The energy transition is necessary, but it takes a long time, costs a lot and involves considerable changes."

Different suppliers, different price trends

However, not all consumers have to expect such leaps in electricity prices. Other electricity providers had announced that they would be raising prices less sharply. In some cases, they are even set to fall.

The Managing Director of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, Kerstin Andreae, recently explained this with the recent fall in procurement costs. "As the procurement strategies of energy suppliers vary greatly, in individual cases more favorable procurement costs may be able to partially compensate for the increased grid fees."/cb/kre/DP/men