consumer
Energy prices: Online calculator determines the amount of the deductions
The NRW consumer advice center offers an online electricity calculator that consumers can use to calculate how the price brakes affect their discounts. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
In many households, high down payments due to the significant rise in energy prices are likely to have caused a minor shock. The further price development can now be determined online in advance.
Households with direct contracts can already use an online calculator to determine how the new price brakes will affect the level of deductions for electricity, gas and district heating. The NRW consumer advice center pointed this out on Thursday.
Example of electricity: “Anyone who received a price increase at the turn of the year and now has to pay higher deductions should know that the deductions will in many cases be lower again from March,” explained Christina Wallraf, the energy market expert at the NRW consumer advice center. “Because those who currently have to pay more than 40 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity benefit from the price brake.”
High discounts would initially be due for January and February, since the price brakes only reduced the discounts from March. “However, the price brakes also apply retrospectively to January and February,” she emphasized. Households would then be credited with the relief for the first two months in March, for example.
In order to use the calculator to determine future electricity deductions, for example, consumers must know the current gross energy price, the basic price and the annual consumption forecast. According to the consumer advice center, energy providers must communicate the new deductions and the relief from the price brake by the end of February at the latest.
While direct customers benefit from lower deductions, tenants usually receive the savings for gas and district heating with the utility bill. The price brakes are effective for the whole of 2023. According to the law, an extension until April 2024 is possible.