Heating and cooking with gas could become even more expensive in the coming years. The reason is not the price of gas.
Although wholesale gas prices have recently fallen significantly – which will also be felt by end consumers in the future – the forecasts for gas customers still look bleak. You will have to pay more and more for gas in the coming years. The price on the wholesale market is not to blame.
This is behind the rising costs
The reason for the significant price increase is not only the increase in VAT from 7 to 19 percent*. Rather, the forecast by several experts is about CO2 taxes. In their opinion, the current calculations (see table) could be significantly higher than stated.
*To ease the burden on citizens, the federal government reduced the VAT for the supply of gas and district heating from 19 to 7 percent. The reduction was lifted on January 1, 2024.
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This does not include the trend away from gas heating and towards alternative heating methods, such as heat pumps or pellet heating. Because: If the number of gas heating owners decreases, the fixed costs for the remaining natural gas customers increase.
This is because the price of natural gas is not only made up of the procurement costs, but also of several factors. These costs are then redistributed to the declining number of private customers.
How the gas price is made up for end consumers
The natural gas price for private customers is currently as follows:
- Procurement costs and distribution costs (72 percent)
- Taxes, duties and levies (14 percent)
- Network fees including costs for measuring point operation (14 percent)
What should gas heater owners do?
Anyone who heats or cooks with natural gas should look for alternatives. In addition to a wood pellet boiler or a heat pump, solar thermal energy or a connection to the local or district heating network would also be conceivable. However, some experts also assume that heating with electricity could be profitable in the future. The reason is the increased feeding of green electricity into the grid, which could lead to falling electricity prices.
