15/12/2023, Updated 2 hours ago|Source: ČTK
Events: Help from ČEZ and innogy with energy prices (source: ČT24)
Energy companies ČEZ and innogy will keep energy prices capped next year for all their customers who have previously had fixed tariffs above the level of the current government ceiling. It will affect 45,000 clients at ČEZ, and several thousand at innogy. Other suppliers also deal with the situation of customers with prices above the government ceiling. According to estimates, at the beginning of the year up to 400,000 customers had fixed prices in this way, and at the moment there are still tens of thousands of them left.
Throughout this year, the government-ordered price ceiling for electricity and gas is valid in the country. All customers thus pay a maximum of six thousand crowns for one megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity including VAT and three thousand crowns for one MWh of gas. Distribution fees are added to this. Government caps apply regardless of whether customers have contracts with their suppliers with prices above the ceiling. Next year, however, the price ceilings will no longer apply.
From the beginning of January, customers who fixed energy prices above the government ceiling during the energy crisis the year before can start paying significantly more. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in such a case, some customers could pay thousands and even tens of thousands of crowns extra for energy. However, according to their statements, most suppliers are trying to solve the situation of these clients. For example, ČEZ, innogy, E.ON and some other companies started offering these clients a switch to cheaper tariffs, mostly with fixation, during the year. So far, hundreds of thousands of customers have used these offers.
CEZ had about 160,000 clients at the beginning of the year, who had fixed prices above the government ceiling the year before. “Most of the contacted clients actively resolved their situation and took advantage of our offer to switch to regular fixation, yet we still have over 45,000 customers who have not responded,” said Tomáš Kadlec, CEO of ČEZ Prodej.
Over 200,000 customers with high fixations also approached innogy during the year. According to spokesman Pavel Grochál, the vast majority of them switched to a lower tariff. “In the end, we decided to lower prices even for inactive customers, just to the level of the price ceilings. The energy crisis has driven energy prices to extreme levels, and the current falling purchase prices will allow us to lower prices for these customers as well. We perceive this assistance as the last response to the energy crisis. We assume that further help from the state or energy companies in the area of commodity prices will no longer be needed,” said innogy retail director David Konvalina.
“Initially, at the end of the summer, we registered more than two hundred thousand such customers, whose prices would jump above the ceilings set by the government after the new year. In recent weeks, we have already counted it to several thousand,” added innogy spokesman Martin Chalupský. “At those government ceilings, their prices will be maintained until the end of those fixed contracts,” he confirmed.
E.ON also had units of thousands of clients with prices above the ceiling this year. According to spokesman Roman Špérňák, approximately two-thirds of them used the option of switching to another fixed tariff during the year. “Currently, we have approximately two thousand clients who, by their own decision, remain on the original product. Our offer still applies to them. If these clients want to switch to a sub-ceiling product without any penalties for early termination of the fixed contract, they can use our offer,” explained Šperňák. “Anyway, we are figuring out how to reach those customers again,” he added.
Another of the large suppliers – Pražská energetika – according to spokesman Karel Hanzelka, has not offered fixed products since autumn 2021. “We are analyzing the whole situation, we are dealing with it, lawyers are dealing with it,” he said. “We’re looking for a solution.”
For electricity, the regulated part of the price will rise by sixty-six percent from January 1, and for gas it will increase by thirty-nine percent. According to the Ministry of Industry, final household bills will increase by an average of one percent.
Customers sometimes do not respond, said a ČEZ spokesman
According to ČEZ spokesman Roman Gazdík, many customers do not respond to calls to choose a cheaper offer. “We warned customers last year not to enter into fixations longer than one year when prices were extremely high, the highest level of the energy crisis,” he described. “We know it: customers sometimes don’t respond to contacting the supplier, that means they were used to two- or three-year fixations and simply refixated on them,” he explained.
ČEZ spokesman Roman Gazdík talked about capping energy prices, and energy analyst Jan Béreš recommended how to prevent price increases (source: ČT24)
“We said to ourselves that it is hard to imagine that customers would pay prices at the level of eight or ten thousand,” Gazdík continued. “We believe that the customers will contact us and we will be able to get them on standard products, because this is a non-standard step after all.” Without this step, the said customers could pay twice what they would have paid otherwise. “We wanted to avoid that,” he said.
According to him, customers do not have to actively do anything to get better prices. Switching to a cheaper product would mean additional savings for ČEZ, he said, and there is no penalty.
Jan Béreš, an energy analyst at Kalkulator.cz, said that doing nothing nowadays is the worst thing a customer can do. According to him, ČEZ’s offer is clearly advantageous for given customers, but it is advisable to compare the offers of other suppliers as well. “I definitely believe that the trend (depreciation) will continue further. Considering how the situation on the stock market is developing, it is possible that we will see even more interesting prices next year,” he said.
2023-12-15 19:40:15
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