“How to Negotiate Better Energy Prices with Suppliers in 2021”

Energy is getting cheaper on world markets and their domestic suppliers are coming up with offers below the government’s price ceiling. According to experts, the time is coming to negotiate better conditions with suppliers, or consider changing them.

Wholesale energy prices have been falling throughout the first quarter of this year, and some suppliers are already starting to pass that on to consumer prices.

Some companies are already sending their clients new price lists. This email with today’s date arrived from the gas supplier for the people of Prague and informs about price reductions in individual tariffs. But such an approach may not be the rule for everyone.

“In today’s situation, every customer should at least contact their existing supplier and try to secure new, more interesting or better conditions there. I would certainly not recommend staying on a contract where the price of the government ceiling is valid,” advises Jan Béreš from the ušetřeno.cz project.

“The market is now offering prices for a year, with annual fixation, which are at very decent prices, very low below the government price ceiling. However, even those customers who do nothing, have a contract for an indefinite period, are not pressured, so they can wait for the start of the new season,” said Jiří Gavor, director of the Association of Independent Contractors.

“However, I would not delay for long, because in the autumn it may actually happen that those prices will jump again, depending on how Europe will be able to fill its reservoirs for next winter,” noted economist Petr Bartoň.

“When a specific supplier approaches us with a specific offer, then it is important not to be pressured into the first offer, not to sign any contract on the spot, on the contrary, to read it thoroughly and ask about everything that is not clear to us,” stressed Jan Hamerník, spokesperson of the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ).

An unpleasant surprise awaits at the beginning of next year for customers who fixed their prices in times when suppliers bought at the highest prices.

“In the extreme case, it might even be worth it, despite the contractual obligation, to leave and pay the contractual penalty, but that is of course the worst course of action,” added Gavor.

drz, TN.cz