Electricity price brake: Vorarlberg demands revision of the model

The form envisaged by the federal government does not help the Vorarlberg population in the current situation. “Vorarlberg customers are practically not relieved,” criticized governor Barbara Schöbi-Fink (ÖVP) in a statement to the APA. It cannot be that the western federal states are being penalized for their low electricity prices.

Vorarlberg – like Tyrol – has repeatedly insisted in the past few days that they also want relief for the citizens of the state in the event of an electricity price brake. The model of the electricity price brake must be designed in such a way “that all federal states benefit from it,” Schöbi-Fink emphasized several times.

According to the government’s plans, Austrian households should only be charged ten cents per kilowatt hour up to the mark of around 2,900 kilowatt hours – the usual market price should only be paid for consumption in excess of this. The federal government wants to spend 2.5 billion euros on this. Due to the comparatively low electricity prices in Vorarlberg, this money would only benefit Vorarlberg households to a very small extent.

Because according to Christof Germann, CEO of the state energy supplier Illwerke/VKW, a kilowatt hour of electricity for an average Vorarlberg household currently costs 16 cents (total price; consumption price: 9.68 cents net), while in Vienna it is over 42 cents. The total electricity bill for such a Vorarlberg household will be 644 euros this year – even without external support – after 670 euros in 2021. The Illwerke/VKW Group has guaranteed the electricity price until the end of March.

“Basically, we consider an electricity price brake to be important and right in the current situation,” stated Schöbi-Fink. However, the model must be revised – also to the effect that the support for electricity prices in each federal state is effective for the same period of time.