The Federal Network Agency has created a new information page for consumers. It is an alternative to Verivox and Check24.
Would you like to know whether you are paying too much for electricity and natural gas? Then it's worth taking a look at the new website of the Federal Network Agency (BNetzAG) called Smard. In addition to the current costs, consumers can also receive information about general price developments for electricity and natural gas. The authority always updates the so-called household customer price index for electricity and household customer price index for gas at the beginning of the month.
Overall, the indices compare current prices with a base value from January 2021.
According to authority president Klaus Müller, the extreme electricity price levels of the crisis year 2022 have largely been overcome. The price has now stabilized: “In September 2024, the electricity price index for new customers will be 109.2 percentage points, only 9.2 percent above the pre-crisis level.” For existing customers the index is currently 125.
The reason for some extreme price increases was the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. It had led to great uncertainty on the energy markets. As a result, procurement costs rose, especially for natural gas and also for electricity.
And Müller also sees a positive trend for consumers when it comes to natural gas: “Although the gas price index has fallen significantly compared to the crisis period, gas prices are still noticeably above pre-crisis levels.” The current gas price index for new customers is 175 and for existing customers is 182. In the crisis year of 2022, the new customer index value was 426 and the existing customer index value was 243.
Smard is intended to create more transparency by clearly presenting market data such as procurement costs, network fees and other relevant factors. The platform is particularly useful for households that want to track price changes at an early stage.
Alternatively, the relevant data is also available on comparison portals such as Verivox or Check24.
