The gas price

The gas price for residential customers consists of three main components:

• the price of the acquisition and sale of the gas,
• the fees for using the gas network,
• and state-imposed price components such as taxes and fees for using public rights of way.

The price of the acquisition and sale of the gas is formed by competition between the gas providers – it can therefore vary from one provider to another. In contrast, the gas provider cannot influence the network fees or the state-imposed price components.

In 2018, the competition-based price component stood at approx. 49%. Network fees (including metering and billing costs) amounted to around 25% of the total gas price, whilst state-imposed price components amounted to 26% (infographic (PDF, 264 KB)).

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According to the 2018 Monitoring Report compiled by the Bundesnetzagentur and the Bundeskartellamt (in German), residential customers with an annual gas consumption of between 5,556 kWh and 55,556 kWh pay on average 6.07 ct/kWh. The acquisition and sale of the gas accounts for 2.96 ct/kWh of this. Compared with the previous year, the average gas price for residential customers fell by 1.3%.

Network fees vary across the country, because they depend on the costs in the specific network area and the gas consumption in that area. According to the 2018 Monitoring Report, the nation-wide average on 1 April 2017 was 1.51 ct/kWh (including metering and billing costs).