The fact that the energy bill has risen sharply in the last year is not only due to the high price of energy. Federal energy watchdog Creg sees suppliers have increased all kinds of costs and margins over the past year. This involves hundreds of euros on an annual basis.
This concerns, for example, the cost of administration, the costs of fines that suppliers have to pay in case of imbalances in the energy market and the markup: the margins they charge.
For example, while subscription amounts have remained fairly stable in the past, CREG has seen a quarterly increase for both electricity and natural gas over the past two years. This means an additional cost of around 25 euros on average for a family’s annual bill.
This also applies to the so-called coefficients and margins that suppliers take. In practice, an increase in these amounts is equivalent to an increase in the annual bill for an average family from 100 to 150 euros, for both electricity and natural gas.
The Creg indicates in particular Luminus. ‘For some months now, the level of surcharges has been so high that the incidence on the annual bill of an average family for electricity rises to over 1,000 euros, for natural gas this increase rises to 700 euros’.
Creg will now ask for explanations from all suppliers regarding the increase in costs that are charged.
“Bewildered
Luminus says Friday evening in a reaction that it is ‘bewildered’ by the CREG’s comments. “The report completely misrepresents the facts by isolating the cases.” The energy supplier points out that the markup does not equal the supplier’s profit margin. For example, supplier risks are also included, it seems.
“The temporary spikes in markups of some Luminus products can be explained by the high and volatile wholesale prices at that time, the threat of gas shortages, the threat of introducing price caps, combined with a long term very low parameter.”
‘What matters to the end user is the total image, the total price, which is published on comparison sites such as Vreg’, concludes Luminus. “We therefore continue to advise the customer to use these comparison sites to compare prices.”
