Higher grid fees could lead to sudden increase in gas prices for German households in 2025

Households in Germany face an abrupt rise in gas prices at the beginning of next year as grid fees increase in 2025, an analysis by price comparison website Verivox has found. Grid fees will rise by 23 percent on average and by up to 56 percent in extreme cases in January. This means that the costs for heating a single-family home with gas will rise by 123 euros per year on average and by 445 euros for households facing the highest grid fee hikes, the Verivox analysis of operator projections found.

The higher fees result from a change in amortisation rules set by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) for grid operators, which are now allowed to factor in the possible decommissioning of their gas grid infrastructure by 2035. “Since the gas grids are monopolies and the grid fees are set by the state, households will have a hard time avoiding these higher costs, as gas suppliers usually pass on their costs directly to customers,” said Verivox energy analyst Thorsten Storck. The changes are expected to particularly affect households in eastern Germany, for example in Saxony-Anhalt, which faces average increases in the fee of 43 percent, in Brandenburg (39%), or in Saxony (34%).

As of October 2024, the average gas price in Germany was 11.24 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh), which translates into annual heating costs for a single-family home of 2,248 euros, Verivox said. If the trend observed in the 60 percent of data that is already available persists, the analysts expect an average cost increase of five percent across the country, which would equal a gas price of 11.76 ct/kWh.