Overview: Which supplier offers the cheapest electricity?

Electricity suppliers have been competing in recent weeks to offer the better price deal. But who is actually the cheapest, and is it time to lock in an electricity price for a longer period? Wholesale electricity prices are rising again, mainly due to uncertainty over natural gas supplies to Europe. Below, we provide a comprehensive overview of current market offers from the largest suppliers, broken down by non-fixed tariffs and one-, two- and three-year fixed contracts. 

Household electricity prices have been increasingly in the spotlight recently, particularly because the largest suppliers have frequently been cutting prices. In recent weeks, announcements of lower prices from one supplier or another have thus become virtually routine.

The latest electricity offers from the main suppliers can be viewed on Energostat in the electricity price comparison section. 

Last week, ČEZ Prodej, part of the ČEZ Group, announced another price cut. This time, it drew attention by lowering prices for offers with fixed terms of one to three years. It had previously announced that it would also reduce prices for all its customers without fixed contracts from the new year. At ČEZ alone, this concerns around 1.7 million customers.

Other major market players have also cut prices. Consumers can choose from new price lists from E.ON, innogy and others. Supplier epet, part of Daniel Křetínský's EPH group, also launched an offensive last week. When publishing its price lists, epet offered the cheapest one- and two-year fixed contracts on the market among larger suppliers.

However, epet's leading position in one-year products did not last long. A price list from Pražská plynárenská soon appeared on the market and was even cheaper.

Which offers are currently the most attractive?

Electricity without a fixed contract is currently offered most cheaply by supplier Eneka, although it is one of the smaller suppliers. Its E-tariff is limited to just 3 MWh per year, however, which is more suitable for a smaller household using electricity only for lighting rather than, for example, heating or water heating.

Among larger suppliers, PRE currently offers the cheapest electricity without a fixed contract. Its PRE PROUD BASIC price list states a price of 3200 Kč/MWh (i.e. 3,2 Kč/kWh) for the most common D02d distribution tariff. PRE is one of the few suppliers to have reduced its price from the start of September rather than from the new year.

Supplier offers as of 2024-11-18

Those who are not in a hurry can save on offers from the new year. Non-fixed price lists from a number of suppliers will become cheaper from 1 January 2025. Price cuts have already been announced by the aforementioned ČEZ, E.ON and Veolia, which offers a non-fixed product for 3250 Kč/MWh  and 109 Kč per month excluding VAT.

Electricity with a one-year fixed contract is offered by suppliers from as little as 2590 Kč/MWh with a monthly payment of 99 Kč excluding VAT. The cheapest offers are from Pražská plynárenská, epet (and Dobrá energie, which is also part of the EPH group) and ČEZ, which offers a price only 41 Kč higher than epet.

Supplier offers as of 2024-11-18

Electricity with a two-year fixed contract can currently be ordered on the market, according to public offers, for around 2500 Kč/MWh excluding VAT and a monthly payment of 130 Kč. This is an epet product intended only for new customers consuming up to 20 MWh of electricity (which most households will meet).

Supplier offers as of 2024-11-18

There are fewer electricity offers with a three-year fixed contract on the market, and they are offered mainly by larger electricity suppliers. Among the major suppliers, ČEZ is the cheapest, with a three-year fixed product available from as little as 2835 Kč/MWh excluding VAT. Other offers include Armex Energy and Tedom with its T-FIX 36 product.

Supplier offers as of 2024-11-18

Have prices already bottomed out? Prices may be affected by the volume of natural gas imports from Russia

Electricity prices from the main suppliers have been steadily falling, so far making it worthwhile to wait for a better offer. But will this trend continue?

Household electricity prices are essentially driven by wholesale electricity prices on the exchange. These have risen again in recent days, reaching around 100 EUR/MWh (at the current exchange rate, around 2530 Kč/MWh, or 2,53 Kč/kWh). The main reason for the increase is uncertainty over future gas supplies from Russia, one of the key factors affecting gas prices in Europe and, consequently, electricity prices.

At the end of last week, Russia's Gazprom announced that it would continue to withhold natural gas supplies from Austrian company OMV. Just a few days earlier, OMV had announced that it had been successful in arbitration proceedings against Gazprom. It will use the claims from those arbitration proceedings to offset payments for gas supplies.

All this caused a degree of panic in the market at the end of the week. As a result of these events, the price of natural gas at the TTF trading hub most recently traded at around 46 EUR/MWh – the highest level this year and also the highest since the end of last November. Positive news for gas prices, and therefore electricity prices, is that despite the supply cut to OMV, Gazprom continued to supply the same volume of natural gas through Ukraine over the weekend.

Will recent developments contribute to sanctions on Russian gas imports?

Recent developments may also revive the debate over a possible ban on natural gas imports from Russia into the European Union. The interruption of gas supplies to Austrian partly state-owned company OMV may contribute to this, as may Germany's opposition to importing Russian gas. This was most recently evident last week, when an import terminal turned away an LNG tanker carrying Russian LNG.

A possible rise in the price of emissions allowances could also affect electricity prices. Analysts expect their price next year to average around 77 EUR per tonne of CO2, approximately 10 EUR higher than now.

As electricity and gas prices have risen again over the past few weeks, the scope for further price reductions for households is now narrowing. Moreover, a number of factors that could push up energy commodity prices remain in place.

A positive signal for commodity prices is the level of gas storage – facilities in the European Union were already around 95% full at the beginning of November, and their fill level remains above 90%. If the winter is relatively mild, as in the previous two years, storage levels are likely to remain high at the end of winter as well. However, whether now is the right time to fix prices will only become clear in the coming weeks and months.