450 euros more – “Politics would influence higher electricity costs”

In concrete terms, an average household must count on an additional burden of 450 euros this year. Strugl: “It will be similar to Verbund, as we offer electricity throughout Austria.” But the reason for the price increase is not that the price of electricity is now higher than a year ago. Strugl: “The electricity bill is rising as a result of network costs and the expiration of the electricity price brake.” At the height of the price distortions, the old government also reduced the fixed rate for green electricity and contributions to the EU minimum level. But the higher rates have been in force again since January. Strugl: “And network costs are also increasing. This has been the case for electricity customers since the beginning of this year. That makes it expensive and not because the energy price has risen.”

Verbund lowered prices twice last year
The association is Austria’s largest alternative electricity supplier to the state energy suppliers and supplies a total of “just under 500,000 measuring points”, says Strugl – from households to commercial companies to industry. However, Strugl emphasizes: “Verbund has reduced the energy price twice in the past year. We are not the cheapest, nor the most expensive, but we are in the middle range in terms of prices. The goal is to “provide customers with a price in the long term and not change prices in the short term.” If wholesale prices drop again, it will take a little longer for the association to pass on the discounts to customers.

Wholesale electricity prices are currently significantly higher than a year ago. In any case, Strugl is reassuring when it comes to pure energy costs: “We are currently not planning any price increases.”

Huge taxes and levies on energy
Of course: According to the Verbund boss, politicians have a simple lever to reduce electricity costs for households: “If you look at your electricity bill, you see that more than 30 percent of this bill consists of taxes and levies. If politicians want to, they can immediately make electricity bills cheaper by reducing taxes and levies. We pay a consumption tax, a fixed rate for green energy, contributions for green energy, an energy tax and a sales tax on everything on top of that – the energy and network costs. In total, this is 30 to 31 percent of the electricity bill.”

At the club of business journalists on Thursday, Strugl also made clear what he expects from a new government, namely sticking to the decarbonization goal: “If such a goal is withdrawn and changed again, it means that we will receive other preconditions along the way. If you constantly change something, you create difficulties for companies, because investment planning is long-term planning.”

Investment requirements in the energy sector of 100 billion euros in 2040
For Strugl it is clear: “It doesn’t matter who is in power – there is no way to expand generation, networks and storage. In 2024, the investment need in the energy sector will amount to more than 100 billion euros for the expansion of power plants, generation installations and storage facilities. It is a lot of money that we have to raise here.” These expenditures would also make Austria more independent and represent “a large economic stimulus program.” “We are in a recession and with these investments we can contribute to stimulating the economy. That also makes economic sense.”

Naturally, the manager also understands the complaints from the sector, which criticizes the short time horizon for the intended climate neutrality in 2040. The EU only sets this target for 2050, Germany for 2045. Strugl: “I understand that the industry says: 2040 comes too soon for us, why this ambition? I understand that the sector is critical of this. But: at some point you have to say what’s going on. If you keep changing things, you’re going to have problems.”