With the new year, government-imposed limits on energy prices, which were supposed to protect customers from high bills, ended. Large providers report over 50,000 customers who have not converted their expensive fixes to cheaper rates. For these people, the new year may mean an increase in energy prices by tens of percentage points.
According to statistics from large suppliers, more than 52,000 people with energy prices above the government cap have not switched to lower tariffs. Despite the fact that companies invited them to do so.
Many of these customers will pay extra on their January bill because the cap was only valid until the end of last year. But for some, price increases in the order of tens of percentage points can be avoided.
“Those who were on the maximum prices yesterday, we proactively left the prices on the ceilings, will save money. They will pay ten percent more,” said ČEZ spokesman Roman Gazdík. For example, PRE and innogy have taken the same step.
“We know that in the last group there are significantly and we managed to take this step,” said Martin Chalupský, spokesperson for innogy.
However, some suppliers did not reduce the price to the level of the expiring government cap for customers who could not be contacted. “We decided to contact these customers, their decision is to keep prices above the ceiling,” said Roman Šperňák, spokesman for the E.ON company.
According to experts, energy prices on the market will decrease next year, just like in recent months. “If nothing particularly bad happens on world markets, I expect that in the first half of the year some suppliers will be able to improve their offer,” noted energy expert Jiří Gavor.
However, suppliers can only influence the unregulated part of the final energy price. That is, the price of electricity or gas. The regulated part of the energy price, that is, the payment for the operation, maintenance or strengthening of the energy system, established by the Energy Regulatory Office, will increase significantly.
In the case of electricity, 65.7%. For gas, this year the price of the regulated component will increase by 38.8%. However, the regulated part of the price represents a smaller portion of the final price. The percentage is 40% for electricity, 20% for gas.
Despite the increase in the price of the regulated component of the energy price, analysts believe that the price for end consumers could also fall. On the other hand, energy will become more expensive for households, which this year will have to catch up with prices set before the start of the energy crisis. According to experts’ estimates, there could be hundreds of thousands of similar cases in the Czech Republic. Energy prices will also increase by tens of percentage points.
kdu, TN.cz
2024-01-01 19:30:00
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