E.ON to reduce energy prices below price cap for one million regular customers

Energy company E.ON will reduce energy prices for all of its regular customers below the price cap set by the government from mid-February. For electricity, prices will be lower by six percent than the price ceiling, and for gas by eight percent. More than one million customers will be affected. This was announced today by E.ON. So far, domestic suppliers have reduced prices only for fixed products.

Most energy suppliers have been offering new customers tariffs with prices based on the government's price cap since the beginning of the year. For this year, this amounts to CZK 5,000 per megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity excluding VAT and CZK 2,500 per MWh of gas. Distribution charges have to be added to this. The so-called caps apply to households, companies and public institutions.

E.ON is now reacting to the fall in energy prices on the energy exchange. "From mid-February, more than one million of our regular customers will have electricity and gas prices below the government's ceiling. In addition, we have also honoured our commitments to our fixed price customers, some of which are very low compared to current price levels. So virtually all of our customers will again be on prices below the price cap," said Claudia Viohl, CEO of E.ON in the Czech Republic.

Compared to current price lists, the company will reduce the price of gas for regular customers by 13 percent and the price of electricity by 18 percent. In total, the new electricity prices will be six per cent below the price cap, while gas prices will be eight per cent below the cap. The new prices will apply to most of the fixed customers from 15 February, while E.ON will introduce new prices for the few remaining tariffs from the beginning of March.

The E.ON boss said that in addition to falling stock market prices, customer savings had helped to drive down prices. "Our customers have consumed 20 percent less energy than expected year-on-year since autumn. So we had more energy available to them, which we purchased at even better prices. And in turn, at the higher prices, we only bought less than we originally needed," Viohl explained.

Some suppliers reacted to the drop in energy prices on the market for the first time in January. At that time, electricity and gas prices were reduced below the price ceiling, for example by E.ON or innogy. So far, however, these have mostly been offers for new customers with prices fixed for a certain period.

In recent weeks, the wholesale price of electricity has fallen to EUR 180 (about CZK 4,300) per MWh excluding VAT, while the price of gas has fallen below EUR 68 (about CZK 1,630) per MWh.

Source: E.ON and CTK