The German government has announced that it will apply natural gas and electricity price relief measures, capping energy prices in March 2023 until the end of April 2024. The government will finance this €200 billion measure to tackle the energy crisis by temporarily levying charges on the profits of electricity producers after December 1 this year.
The measures, which will be applied retroactively covering prices from January 2023, is expected to ensure natural gas savings of at least 20 percent compared to last year.
Regarding natural gas prices, the cap will cover 70 percent of annual natural gas consumption of industrial consumers at 7 cents/kWh, while for households and small companies it will cover 80 percent of the annual consumption at 12 cents/kWh.
For electricity prices, the cap will be at 13 cents/kWh for 70 percent of industrial consumers’ consumption, while the remaining 30 percent of the consumption will be at the market price. For companies with an annual consumption of up to 30,000 kWh, the electricity price cap will be at 13 cents/kWh.