Turned off electricity and gas: the Federal Network Agency makes a serious forecast

Many Germans are worried about the winter with sharply increased costs for electricity and gas. Can you still afford heating and the power connection or will the provider stop supplying you when the money stops flowing? An analysis by the Federal Network Agency shows that the number of disconnected connections has been increasing for some time.

Federal Network Agency: Delivery stops for electricity and gas are becoming more frequent

Many gas and electricity customers in Germany have long since received letters from their energy supplier – and one thing should be clear everywhere: it will be more expensive. Although there are significant local differences, there are currently no falling kWh prices for end customers anywhere. More and more consumers are therefore asking themselves: How long can I still pay electricity and gas bills?

In their joint monitoring report, the Federal Network Agency and the Federal Cartel Office assume that the Number of delivery stops will increase in 2022. There is no exact data for the current year, but the increase in energy costs could lead to more customers defaulting on their payments. This in turn could drive up the number of delivery stops.

The co2online experts have determined how much the costs are going through the roof. It is true that the extreme price increases only occurred to German consumers as a result of the Ukraine war, but the The number of electricity and gas blackouts has already increased in 2021.

The increase in power cuts was 2 percent compared to the previous year, the number of disconnected connections rose to around 235,000. The number of gas barriers rose even more: the monitoring report counts around 27,000 shutdowns, an increase of 12 percent. The proportion of Germans who were affected by delivery stops is correspondingly low: only 0.4 percent of electricity and 0.2 percent of gas customers had to live with the blocking of their connection last year. However, this is also due to the fact that many providers have not stopped deliveries despite late payment.

You can at least generate electricity yourself with a balcony power plant:

Traffic light coalition wants to protect consumers from delivery stops

The federal authorities are not making a forecast in figures of how the sharp rise in energy prices could affect this ratio in 2022. The reason for the increasing number in 2021, according to the dpa news agency (via daily News) postponed delivery stops from the pandemic. Customers who had gotten into financial difficulties as a result of the pandemic could temporarily be safe from delivery stops.

If possible, there should not be any shutdowns this winter either. For this purpose, the federal government wants, among other things, with the Adoption of the December discount worries. From spring 2023, a gas price brake should take effect and cap the price per kWh.