Save By Switching
Austria's electricity market remains dominated by a handful of state- and local-owned providers, making it superficially diverse but concentrated in reality
Servus!
There was an excellent illustration in the Standard this weekend that captured how Austria’s household electricity market is superficially diverse but heavily concentrated in reality. In a country where electricity provision remains a devolved matter, ownership of Austria’s largest electricity providers rests in the hands of the states. Those state-owned providers in turn dominate local markets, holding a market share of anywhere between 70 and 98 percent in states like Vienna, Lower Austria, and Styria.
No state is exempt from the dominance of a single state-owned electricity provider. In Burgenland, Energie Burgenland is totally in public hands via two state-owned holding companies. In Vienna, the city owns Wiener Stadtwerke Holding AG, which in turn owns Wien Energie. Lower Austria owns 51 percent of EVN, Upper Austria about 53 percent of Energie AG Oberösterreich, Tyrol 100 percent of TIWAG, Vorarlberg 95.5 percent of illwerke vkw, and Salzburg 42.56 percent of Salzburg AG. That leaves Styria, where Energie Steiermark is 100 percent state owned, and Carinthia, where Kelag’s majority shareholder is a holding company whose majority shareholder is the state.
The federal government is the majority shareholder in Verbund, and in certain municipalities, local governments also own and operate electricity providers: Linz, Wels, Salzburg, Murau, Klagenfurt, and so on. Alternative providers, which on paper look as if they are private and independent, often turn out to be subsidiaries of state-owned electricity companies. Energie Steiermark, for example, is the parent company of go green energy, while Switch and Naturkraft are the products of Energie Allianz Austria, a partnership of Wien Energie, EVN, and Energie Burgenland.
I want to use the summer holiday to run another ask-me-anything edition of The Vienna Briefing. Maybe you have a question about Austrian politics, the economy, something cultural, foreign policy, where to find a good piece of Sachertorte—or something else you’re curious, concerned, or confused about. If so, you can leave your question in the comments below1.
It would be one thing is this market concentration in which the state plays an outsized role resulted in regulated and affordable energy prices. But as of 2024, Austrians were paying above Eurozone average prices for household electricity (at a time when the electricity price cap, which limited the cost of electricity to 10 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 2,900 kWh per annum, was still in place.) Austria’s electricity market, then, currently neither here nor there. It enjoys neither the complete stability and dependability that comes with state ownership nor the competition and dynamism inherent in a market economy.
Shortly before parliament went on its summer break, the federal government announced a new electricity market reform bill intended, among other things, to bring down electricity prices. For consumers, this could mean the introduction of a new ‘social tariff,’ which for low-income households will cap the price of electricity at six cents/kWh for the first 2,900 kWh of annual use. The government also wants consumers to make greater use of dynamic instead of fixed energy price tariffs as well as existing opportunities to switch providers. In the first three months of 2025, only 1.7 percent of electricity and gas consumers changed providers.
Indeed, the most powerful tool private consumers in Austria have—even in a concentrated market—is the ability to change suppliers. This process is—in my experience, at least—incredibly easy, for it can all be done online with you, the customer, granting authorization to your prospective provider to undertake the nitty-gritty of the switch for you. You can use tools like Durchblicker and E-Control to compare prices based on your last annual energy bill. Some providers offer bonuses to entice new consumers, though unless you intend to change switch annually, it is also worth checking what the annual price would be without the bonus—the results are often eye-opening. While it can be cheaper to switch to a dynamic tariff, they are, of course, less predictable than the fixed price option. Another consideration is whether you want your network costs on the same bill as your power; opting for this simplifies the payment process but limits your provider options. At the height of summer when market prices can be at their lowest, if you think you’re paying too much for your electricity and gas, now may be the time to check if you could save by switching.
Bis bald!
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