Czech Energy Bills: Save Thousands | Expert Guide

Regulated charges, distribution rates, consumption data in units. Not only that, it consists of dozens of items that users usually skim over without understanding what they mean to them.

“The bill is overflowing with numbers, but there is a lack of a simple story that would be easy to understand,” stated Petr Lajsek, an analyst at Purple Trading.

However, if a person does not understand what he is actually comparing, he usually prefers not to change anything. “More than half of the people put off changing suppliers precisely because of concerns about the administration,” Lajsek pointed out. However, such a customer often loses.

If, for example, a family with regular consumption living in central Bohemia were to sign a new three-year fixed contract with Pražská plynárenská, they would pay a total of 24,300 crowns per year, i.e. just over two thousand crowns per month in advance payments. For example, compared to the offer of a non-fixed tariff at PRE, she would save 4,400 crowns annually.

At the same time, the matter is significantly simpler than it appears from the invoice. Of the items that affect the final price, only two actually play a role. Consumers should take these into account if they want to make sure they don’t switch to a cheaper supplier.

This can only affect the price of power electricity or gas and then the fixed monthly payment. Suppliers provide this information right at the top of the bill.

The rest of what makes up the total amount is determined by the Energy Regulatory Office. This payment is the same for all customers and is therefore not at all important for deciding where to save.

In the case of electricity, for example, items such as the price for distribution, system services, operation of off-grid infrastructure, fee for supporting the purchase of electricity from renewable sources, electricity tax, or payment for a circuit breaker are fixed in this way. In the case of gas, it is the distribution part of the prices, i.e. the distribution fee and a fixed payment per month.

It is not easy to know all this. “It’s not that it can’t be understood in the end, but people would have to devote themselves to it and spend time with it, which they often don’t have. And then they don’t know if they have a good price,” noted XTB chief analyst Jiří Tyleček.

According to Jiří Gavor from ENA, European legislation also contributes to the fact that statements are so complex.

“The range of data is also swelling due to the European Union regulation. An example is the mandatory information at the end of the invoice about the composition of the supplier’s energy mix. However, every supplier will describe there what the energy mix of the Czech Republic is, or refer to it. For the customer, this is meaningless information,” he noted.

According to Lajsko, the experience of the energy crisis of recent years contributed to the fact that people do not look much for better prices elsewhere.

“Households then got used to uncertainty and naturally retreated to safety. This cautious reflex persists, even though energy exchange prices today are at fractional prices compared to 2023,” he pointed out.

Experts now recommend to those who can change suppliers to fix the price even for two years. This can be done by customers whose fixed period ends or customers with an indefinite contract. However, those with a running fixation must wait for it to end, otherwise they face a contractual penalty.

Savings can range from a few thousand for electricity to tens of thousands for families with high gas consumption.

But how to find your way in suppliers’ offers? The choice can be simplified by price comparators, for example the one offered by the Energy Regulatory Office on its website.

For electricity, people enter bill data such as point of consumption, distribution rate, circuit breaker value and consumption into it.

If they are customers of large companies such as ČEZ, innogy, E.ON, PRE, Pražská plynárenská, Centropolu or MND, all they have to do is upload their latest invoice to the website in electronic form and the comparator will fill in all the necessary data by itself. It then compares offers based on the lowest annual payment and monthly down payment, and the customer can immediately see the potential savings.

“Just such procedures can fundamentally change people’s willingness to switch to a more favorable offer,” Lajsek praised the service.

According to a survey by the company Epet, only 15 percent of the population changed their electricity supplier in the last year.

“The main motivation for the change was the lower price for the majority. Respondents are most often deterred from the change by fear of the complexity of the process, misunderstanding of the contractual documentation or lack of time,” confirmed the survey.

According to the survey, a quarter of Czechs only changed their contract with the energy supplier when the price list was adjusted, and a fifth then on the basis of a direct request from their supplier.

Every fifth person has never revised the contract with their energy supplier.

“From the customer’s point of view, the contract is often just a bunch of text full of legal terms. I dare say that some people are even afraid to read it, and that’s why they don’t want to change their supplier,” says Roman Šmíd, sales director of Epet.