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From January, German Households See Modest Energy Bill Relief as CO2 Price Rises

State-backed cuts to grid fees and the removal of the gas storage levy begin to lower bills as official data still show Germany with Europe’s highest household power prices.

Overview

  • Eurostat figures for H2 2025 put German household electricity at about €0.40 per kWh, the highest in Europe, with the dataset not yet reflecting announced reductions.
  • The federal government will subsidize network charges with €6.5 billion from 1 January 2026, and officials say consumers could see up to 3 cents per kWh in relief as the regulator forecasts stable or slightly lower power prices.
  • In Berlin, Stromnetz Berlin plans to cut the network work price by 2.98 cents to 8.88 cents per kWh, and Gasag will reduce gas by 0.34 cents per kWh after the gas storage levy’s abolition, yielding typical annual savings in the tens of euros.
  • Germany’s national CO2 price moves to a €55–€65 per tonne corridor on 1 January, with estimates of roughly 3 cents more per liter for petrol and about 0.22–0.3 cents per kWh for natural gas; the VdK urges targeted support for low-income households.
  • Austria’s gas network charges rise again on 1 January by an average 18.2 percent, with analyses showing cumulative increases since 2024 of about 38 percent on average and up to 57 percent depending on the region.