What does business electricity really cost? The components of the power price for firms

The short answer

Non-household customers paid an average of 17.64 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity excluding VAT in the first half of 2026, while small and medium-sized firms using 20,000 to 500,000 kilowatt hours a year paid 23.66 cents (Federal Statistical Office, as of 30 September 2026, provisional). Of that price, a firm can influence only about half – the rest is set by law through taxes, surcharges and regulated grid fees.

So anyone wanting to cut electricity costs first has to know which part is fixed and which is not. Otherwise you negotiate hard over a block that costs the same at every socket, and leave the real levers untouched.

What does business electricity cost on average in 2026?

The Federal Statistical Office reports prices for non-household customers by consumption band. The more a firm draws, the lower the price per kilowatt hour, because fixed costs and grid fees are spread over more volume and large buyers get better procurement terms.

Annual consumption	Price H1 2026 (excl. VAT)	Change vs. H2 2025
Average of all non-household customers	17.64 ct/kWh	−8.3%
20,000 – 500,000 kWh (typical SME)	23.66 ct/kWh	−9.6%
over 150,000,000 kWh (heavy industry)	12.67 ct/kWh	−3.1%

Two things belong with these figures. First, they are provisional: the politically planned industrial electricity price relief was not yet included in the survey, and Destatis intends to revise the values later. Second, an average is of little use for your own sum – what matters is the consumption band your own firm sits in.

What are the components of the electricity price?

The price breaks into three blocks. The first is procurement and supply – buying the power on the exchange or through supply contracts, plus the supplier’s margin. This is the only part that genuinely varies between providers. The second is the grid fees (Netzentgelte) including the concession levy: the charge for using the power grids, regulated by the Federal Network Agency, very different from region to region and currently the fastest-rising item. The third is taxes and surcharges, which are the same for everyone.

These state-set items can be stated to the cent for 2026:

Component	2026 (ct/kWh)	Legal basis / source
Electricity tax (standard rate)	2.05	§ 3 StromStG
CHP surcharge (KWKG-Umlage)	0.446	transmission operators / netztransparenz.de
Special grid-use surcharge § 19 StromNEV (up to 1 GWh)	1.559	transmission operators / netztransparenz.de
Offshore grid surcharge (Offshore-Netzumlage)	0.941	transmission operators / netztransparenz.de
Concession levy (special-contract customer)	max. 0.11	§ 2 KAV
EEG surcharge (renewables levy)	0.00	abolished since 1 July 2022
Total tax, surcharges, concession	≈ 5.11

The EEG surcharge, still often quoted, has been set to zero since July 2022 and is financed from the federal budget – if you still see it on an invoice, check the date. The concession levy is capped at 0.11 cents for larger firms (special-contract customers); small firms on a standard tariff pay up to 1.99 cents depending on the size of their municipality.

Which part is negotiable – and which is not?

Only procurement. Grid fees, the concession levy, the electricity tax and the surcharges are identical at every site and with every supplier – they pass through the supplier’s invoice, which hands them on one for one. Add the 5.11 cents above to typical grid fees in the order of 7 to 10 cents per kilowatt hour, and the fixed floor already exceeds half of the SME price.

In practice this means the biggest lever is not the price per kilowatt hour but the volume – every kilowatt hour saved saves all components at once. After that come the timing of procurement and the contract structure (fixed price, tranches, spot exposure), not haggling over a tenth of a cent of margin. And VAT, finally, is a pass-through item for firms entitled to input-tax deduction, not a cost factor.

Can my firm reclaim the electricity tax?

That depends on the sector, not on the tax office’s goodwill. Under § 9b of the electricity tax act, only businesses in the manufacturing sector and in agriculture and forestry receive relief of 20 euros per megawatt hour – that is 2.00 cents per kilowatt hour, so that only the EU minimum rate of 0.05 cents remains. The refund must be applied for at the main customs office and is granted only once it exceeds 250 euros in a year; that corresponds to around 12,500 kilowatt hours.

The much-discussed general electricity-tax cut for everyone did not happen. Retail, offices, practices, hotels and hospitality pay the full 2.05 cents. Manufacturers, by contrast, often leave money on the table because they do not file the application – it is the most frequently overlooked item on the business electricity bill.

Worked example: a business using 100,000 kilowatt hours

Assumptions, disclosed: 100,000 kilowatt hours a year (the SME band), total price at the Destatis average for that band of 23.66 cents per kilowatt hour, grid fee as a regional assumption of 8.00 cents, special-contract customer. Procurement is the remainder that follows from it.

Block	ct/kWh	Euros per year	negotiable?
Tax, surcharges, concession	5.11	5,110 €	no (statutory)
Grid fees (assumption, regional)	8.00	8,000 €	no (regulated)
Procurement + supply (remainder)	10.55	10,550 €	yes
Total	23.66	23,660 €

55 per cent of the bill – 13,110 euros – is fixed before the firm even talks about the contract. A hard switch of supplier that pushes procurement down by a tenth brings around 1,000 euros. If the firm is a manufacturer and files the electricity-tax application, that is a further 2,000 euros a year (2.00 cents on 100,000 kilowatt hours) – twice as much, without changing supplier. And 10 per cent less consumption saves around 2,366 euros across all components. The order of the levers is therefore clear.

What firms should check now

1. Break down your own bill: have procurement, the grid fee and taxes/surcharges shown separately. Only then can you see which block is worth negotiating over.
2. Know your consumption band: place your own annual consumption in the right Destatis band and compare against that, not the overall average.
3. Check the electricity-tax relief: if the firm belongs to the manufacturing sector or to agriculture and forestry, file the § 9b application at the main customs office – backdated until the year-end for the previous year.
4. Treat the grid fee as a location factor: the regional differences are large; for a new build or an expansion, the distribution operator’s grid fee belongs in the site calculation.
5. Structure procurement rather than just comparing prices: fixed price, tranche model or spot exposure suit different risk profiles – the structure decides more money than the last tenth of a cent.
6. Tackle volume: check the load profile, the base load and avoidable standby consumption, because kilowatt hours saved lower every component of the bill at the same time.