Stadtwerke Elbtal GmbH (SWE) has paid out the December subsidy in full and saved customers €2.2 million

The German government has put together a comprehensive package of measures financed by federal funds to keep energy costs affordable and at the same time secure the supply in Germany. This includes, for example, the federal government assuming the costs for the December 2022 discount for gas and heating and the electricity and gas price brake, which will apply retroactively for the months of February and January from March 2023.
SWE has credited the December aid to all 7400 gas and heating customers affected. This means that customers will receive over €2.2 million in relief from the federal government. Together with its partner SachsenEnergie, the company has worked intensively to implement the measures of the law, which was only passed in November, in the billing process so that customers are relieved of high energy costs in the short term.
Annett Müller-Bühren, the commercial managing director, is pleased that the December aid has reached the customers. Wholesale prices for electricity and gas have now fallen, but are still at a high level. It is therefore still necessary to save gas and electricity.
The company cannot sit back and relax. The next step is to implement the price brakes for electricity, gas and heat. The devil is in the detail because there are a large number of different regulations. Customers don't have to do anything, because they are automatically taken into account via the budget billing or the annual bill.

How does the price brake for gas and heat work?
Private households and companies that consume less than 1.5 million kilowatt hours of gas per year, as well as other customer groups defined by law (e.g. associations), will receive 80 per cent of their forecast annual consumption in September 2022 for 12 cents per kilowatt hour. If heat is purchased, the price for 80 per cent of the previous year's consumption is capped at 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour. Saving is therefore worthwhile, because if you consume more than 80 per cent of the previous year's consumption, you will have to pay the usually significantly higher contract price.

How does the electricity price cap work?
For electricity customers who have consumed a maximum of 30,000 kWh of electricity per year, i.e. mainly households and smaller companies, the price is capped at 40 ct / kWh for 80 per cent of the current annual consumption forecast. The current annual consumption forecast corresponds to the annual consumption determined by the grid operator for January 2023. It pays to reduce electricity consumption: if more than 80% is consumed compared to the previous year, the generally higher contract price must be paid.
We are working flat out to implement the price brakes, but the system-side adjustments will still take some time. We therefore ask our customers to be patient until the price brakes and the new reduced discounts are in the system and written information is provided.

More than 7500 gas customers and 30,500 electricity customers in Radebeul and Coswig place their trust in SWE and benefit from the relief packages. Despite these relief measures, energy costs will remain at a very high level in the future, meaning that the intelligent use of energy will continue to gain in importance. As a local municipal utility, it is important to SWE to support its customers in these difficult times and to provide advice on all aspects of saving energy.
Important tips can be found on the SWE homepage at www.stadtwerke-elbtal.de