District heating is becoming cheaper in Offenbach and Dietzenbach, but it remains expensive

District heating dispute

A good four years ago The interest group (IG) EVO was founded to defend itself against “unlawful price adjustments” and the introduction of new price systems for district heating.

The citizens’ initiative brought the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations on board, which led a lawsuit against EVO and EVD. The Frankfurt Higher Regional Court upheld the consumer advocates, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned the judgment in April of this year.

The judge but left out in their judgment whether it is legal for the district heating suppliers to declare their price changes to be effective through public announcements. A private person is currently suing the BGH. ann

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The lowering of the district heating prices for October 1st is long overdue at EVO and EVD, says the citizens’ initiative. On the one hand, the two suppliers unilaterally introduced a new price system on October 1, 2015, which made district heating around twelve percent more expensive for customers in one fell swoop. On the other hand, the prices would have increased by around 30 percent within these five years compared to the old contract. The IG had looked at the consumption and connection values ​​of 70 customers, and the 30 percent were the result of this comparison, said Karlheinz Kremer, one of the IG spokesman.

EVO press spokesman Harald Hofmann puts it into perspective: “30 percent is definitely not true for all of our customers.” District heating prices have only increased by around ten percent for average customers in the past five years – including the latest price reduction. “That’s a two percent increase in the price per year.”

The IG is also annoyed that the tariffs of the gas suppliers are much cheaper. “Natural gas is 40 percent cheaper than district heating,” says Kremer. There is competition here, while there is no competition in district heating. EVO and EVD are monopolists to whom one is helpless because of the existing connection obligation. “We are milked by the monopoly.”

Here, too, Hofmann calculates differently. With natural gas, one should not only look at the consumption price, i.e. the price per kilowatt hour, but also take into account the investment costs. “A new system is due every 20 years,” he says – and then you can quickly get to 20,000 euros including installation. In addition, the district heating customer can also conclude long-term contracts in which the price remains stable for two years.

But the IG warns of a new contract. “There are so many clauses in 50 pages that the two suppliers can do whatever they want with the customer,” says Kremer.

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