E-Control: Customers Are Sometimes Paying Far Too Much for Electricity and Gas
The regulatory authority E-Control is particularly concerned about those customers who pay four to five times more for electricity and gas than necessary. For electricity, the cheapest new customer tariffs currently start at 10 to 11 cents net per kilowatt-hour, as E-Control board member Wolfgang Urbantschitsch said at a press conference on Thursday.
Urbantschitsch said he does not believe that customers have consciously signed up for such expensive tariffs and can easily afford them. Rather, the opposite is true, and it is likely an overwhelming issue with energy costs.
Switching suppliers would be uncharted territory for some electricity and gas customers
Urbantschitsch reported that 52 percent of electricity and 54 percent of gas customers have never switched their supplier, even though there is "a really significant savings potential of up to 1,000 euros with a new customer discount in the first year."
Urbantschitsch attributes the low switching rates to a lack of transparency. Only about 30 percent know how much they pay for a kilowatt-hour of electricity. For gas, it's only 16 percent. The majority of respondents in the E-Control survey only knew the monthly or quarterly installments, which do not reflect the actual costs.
Monthly billing instead of annual
According to E-Control, switching from annual billing to twelve monthly bills would help. With the new digital meters (smart meters), this is possible for electricity. Customers would then notice price changes more quickly and could react to them. Urbantschitsch reminded of the right to a monthly billing, and everyone can inquire about the currently valid price from their energy supplier.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.