How electricity pricing works in Germany
German household electricity is among the most expensive in Europe, and the wholesale price is a surprisingly small part of it. Understanding the rest is the key to understanding your bill.
The Börsenpreis is a minority of your bill
The exchange price for the DE-LU bidding zone is what this site tracks, and on a typical day it accounts for well under half of what a household pays. The remainder is grid fees, levies, taxes, and supplier margin. This means that even a dramatic swing in the wholesale price moves your bill by a much smaller percentage.
Netzentgelte — the biggest variable component
Grid fees average roughly 9 cents per kWh nationally, but the spread across Germany is wide, because there are hundreds of network operators and their costs differ enormously. Rural areas with heavy renewable build-out have historically paid more than dense cities. This is why our German figures are explicitly a national average, and why we offer you the option to enter the rate from your own bill instead.
Stromsteuer, Umlagen and Konzessionsabgabe
The electricity tax has been 2.05 cents per kWh since 1999 and is not indexed. On top sit several levies — the KWKG surcharge for combined heat and power, the §19 StromNEV levy, and the offshore grid levy — which together come to around 2.9 cents per kWh in 2026. The municipal concession fee varies by the size of your town, capped at 2.39 cents per kWh in large cities. VAT of 19% is then applied to everything.
Dynamic tariffs
Dynamic tariffs that pass through the hourly exchange price are available in Germany and have been growing, particularly among households with heat pumps, electric cars, or home batteries. If you are on a conventional fixed tariff, this site tells you about the market but not about your bill.
Practical advice
The German case for load shifting is strongest for households with a heat pump or an EV, because the absolute kilowatt-hours are large enough that even a modest percentage saving is meaningful. If your annual consumption is 2,500 kWh and you are on a fixed tariff, honestly, the effort is not worth it. Check whether a dynamic tariff makes sense for your consumption before optimising anything.