Electricity and gas prices are rising. Experts advise to fix contracts

Up to a tenth more expensive

The chief economist of Trinity Bank, Lukáš Kovanda, also draws attention to the rise in energy prices on the stock exchange. According to him, the wallets of electricity customers will feel it again this year. According to him, electricity and gas for households will increase in price by up to ten percent this year and at the beginning of next year. “This means that the average household will pay 1,400 crowns more per year for electricity than now,” said Kovanda. According to him, gas will also become more expensive by about a thousand crowns a year.

Therefore, according to Kovanda, people should fix the price of electricity for three years, because during this time they foretell a rise in the price. Gavor also agrees. “We cannot look forward to any significant and longer-term decline in prices for electricity,” said the analyst. According to him, the reason for the increase in prices is, among other things, the planned shutdown of German nuclear power plants. Some will be taken out of service this year, others in the following year. Interest in electricity is also boosted by the expected growth in demand that can be expected due to the outgoing coronavirus epidemic.

Data published by the Energy Regulatory Office (ERO) testify to how the pandemic has affected energy consumption. For example, in high and very high voltage, where large industrial companies are connected, last April, consumption fell by more than 15 percent compared to the same months of the previous year. On the contrary, household consumption increased by almost 16 percent in the same period. “Such significant changes in current times last for several years, now we observe them in a number of months,” said ERO Chairman Stanislav Trávníček.

New decree

According to a new decree issued by the ERO, from next year, energy suppliers will have to inform customers on the invoice not only about the payments for the energy consumed, but also about the date when their contract expires. This will make it easier for them to avoid heavy fines for breaches of fixed-term contracts in the event of early termination.

Finding out when a contract with a supplier ends may not be easy. Sometimes, instead of a simple date, the terms of the contract provide for a variety of periods when certain concrete steps need to be taken in order for the contract to actually end. In addition, if it was closed by telephone and the supplier did not send him a paper version, the customer may not have it available at all.

The new regulation also clarifies the obligation of the supplier to send invoices. Some companies have not sent proof of billing to consumers for several years. People did not have information about their spending and even possible overpayments. “For example, we solve the problems of consumers to whom the supplier did not send the bill even once every four years,” said Trávníček.

“To avoid this unwanted approach, it is now made clear that the consumer must be billed every year,” he added.

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