Pretty damaging to consumers especially in the country of conservative Mark Route and his free market political party honoring big, bigger, biggest multinational corporations. No taxation for the super rich ...

Critical utilities were owned by the state or cities for delivery gas and electricity. My contract was with ENECO, it was sold to a Japanese Investment group. So I switched to a green energy group in Holland with wind and solar farms.

My one year contract ended end of January 2022. Got a first offer mid October but I would miss my fulfillment of contact bonus so I stayed. In late fall the prices started to rise and my next offer was end of December (unacceptable high). Surprisingly the prices eased in January and I got a new 3-year offer. I accepted within the hour. Every new contract on the market was quite unattractive as they were for flexible pricing only. 😠.

How lucky are the consumers in England, France and Germany for capping the energy prices. Not so in the Netherlands, an important cause for highest inflation in Europe. Scandalous.

The Hague is putting the pressure on employers not to increase the salaries as that would further exacerbate inflation and the cost of living ... gone through this episode in the seventies. Vivid memories.

Energy pricing

Costs    electricity   gas
2021        0.15      0.77
October     0.23      0.90
December    0.54      1.93
January     0.30      1.59

Proposed monthly payment €630,- in December. 😖 Today it is beyond crazy ... many up to middle income suffer, businesses with gas ovens are shutting down as are industrial companies production based on gas furnaces. This winter will be worse. Germany has a modest regulation for pricing taking a year's average?

I was quite surprised to read the modest energy price and increase by Rhein Energie ...

'Sapere aude'

Erdgaspreise steigen zum 1. Oktober - Fernwärmepreise ändern sich ebenfalls.

➡️ [_link] pic.twitter.com/2oucpxPDft

— RheinEnergie AG (@RheinEnergie) August 1, 2022

Erdgas

Bei unveränderten Grundpreisen steigt der Arbeitspreis für die verbrauchte Kilowattstunde Erdgas von 7,87 Cent um 10,43 Cent auf 18,30 Cent pro Kilowattstunde (brutto) ab dem 1. Oktober. Dies bedeutet:
In einer Kölner Wohnung mit 10.000 Kilowattstunden Jahresverbrauch erhöhen sich die Jahreskosten auf rund 2.002 Euro (vorher: rund 960 Euro), das ist eine Steigerung um etwa 108 Prozent.

Russlands Gas-Verknappung schlägt auf die Preise für Endverbraucher durch: Kunden von RheinEnergie müssen ab Herbst mehr als doppelt so viel zahlen - die neue Gas-Umlage der Bundesregierung noch gar nicht eingerechnet. [_link]

— DER SPIEGEL (@derspiegel) August 2, 2022

The Effects of Electricity Market Liberalisation in the European Union

Since the 1990s, the EU has been trying to liberalise electricity markets. The anticipated benefits were efficiency gains and lower prices for consumers while guaranteeing security of supply throughout the EU and promoting energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy resources. In other sectors, such as the telecommunications industry, liberalisation has led to substantial price decreases.

This thesis analyses the actual impact of liberalisation on competition and electricity prices. Based on a theoretical framework for electricity market liberalisation, the three liberalisation directives adopted by the EU are being examined. Subsequently, electricity prices for private and industrial consumers and competition in wholesale and retail markets in 15 EU Member States are being analysed. The analysis reveals that, although some progress has been made, markets still show a high degree of concentration and electricity prices have generally increased.

European energy market liberalization: experiences and challenges

'Sapere aude'