Stadtwerke München (SWM) rejects the accusation of treating customers unfairly with “absurd” pricing in their three district heating supply areas and of causing confusion with non-transparent calculation methods. The Munich city council faction “Die Linke/Die Party” had complained about this and asked for clarification as to why customers in the south-east heating network, which is heavily dependent on gas, in Hohenbrunn and Ottobrunn with 97 euros per megawatt hour (as of the beginning of 2023) only half paid what customers in the city of Munich and in the southern network, which includes the municipality of Taufkirchen, have to shell out. There, 210 euros per megawatt hour have to be shelled out.
The SWM justify this in an answer submitted by economics officer Clemens Baumgärtner with special features of contracts taken over in the south-east and south networks, which were bought in 2018 and 2019. In particular, they do not want to be compared to providers in surrounding communities such as Unterföhring or Ismaning, which are strongly supported by the town halls.
Ironically, where gas is used for heating, it is particularly cheap
The Munich public utilities have recently repeatedly found themselves in need of explanation due to high consumption prices. In the case of district heating, there was also the fact that the development did not match expectations. According to the left, the south-east supply area in Ottobrunn and Hohenbrunn, which is blessed with low tariffs, is 95 percent dependent on expensive gas, while in the city area only a gas share of 50 percent is set and in the southern network only 20 percent. The SWM justify the nevertheless low tariff with the fact that, as in the past with the “Energieversorgung Ottobrunn” in the southeast area, a price adjustment is only made once a year. The upheavals on the energy markets have therefore only partially arrived there.
SWM defends the price change clauses, which are based on indices depending on the energy source, as market-compliant and comprehensible. The wood index used in the southern network had also risen by more than 82 percent as a result of the Russian war of aggression, and the price for natural gas, which is also relevant for the southern network, had more than quadrupled. The indices are based “on SWM’s costs for generating and providing district heating” and on the heating market in Munich and the surrounding area, which is still largely characterized by natural gas and heating oil.
That is slowly changing. In the south-eastern network, for example, the share of geothermal energy is increasing due to the connection to the geothermal plant in Kirchstockach, which belongs to the public utility company. The SWM emphasize that they finance their geothermal systems from their own resources, whereas the surrounding communities have politically decided to spend high amounts in the millions. SWM did not receive any grants or loans from the city of Munich, but on the contrary paid amounts in the three-digit million range to them every year.