Ordinary Ledger: gas up 34% for new contracts, and nothing yet for the contract you already have

If you signed a new gas contract for a detached house today, you would pay on average 14.9 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the energy industry association BDEW’s latest price check, dated 10 November¹. That is 3.8 cents, or 34%, more than at the start of the year¹. The figure is for contracts that can be signed now, for a house using 20,000 kWh a year¹.

Electricity moved less. A new power contract for a household using 3,500 kWh a year averages 40.1 cents per kWh, 2.9 cents or 8% above January¹. Desk arithmetic: on those reference consumptions, the rise since January adds about €760 a year to a new gas contract and about €101.50 to a new power contract.

The sentence that matters most. For customers in running tariffs, the BDEW writes, there have been “bislang keine Auswirkungen”: no effects so far¹. Price changes usually take effect at the start of a year, or the price is fixed for a set period¹. So the 34% describes the shop window, not most households’ bills.

Why it is not 2022. The association says wholesale gas prices rose because of the Iran war but less steeply than in 2021 and 2022, that there is no shortage of gas supply this time, and that imports are far more diversified¹. That is little comfort for a household whose fixed price runs out next month, but it is the difference between an expensive winter and a frightening one.

For you. Find your contract and note two dates: when your fixed price ends and how much notice you must give. If your supplier announces a price rise, German law generally gives you a special right to terminate (Sonderkündigungsrecht); comparing before the letter arrives costs nothing. Moving house or changing supplier? Compare against the 14.9 and 40.1 cents, not against last year’s price.