Gas reserve 2027: every gas customer is to pay a new levy — Reiche’s draft bill is in consultation

What the draft gas reserve bill provides for

Katherina Reiche’s Federal Economy Ministry has sent the draft of a “law introducing a gas reserve for crisis preparedness” into consultation with the German states and associations; ZfK dates the start to 13 October 2026. The reserve is to hold around 24 terawatt hours — enough to bridge a 30-day outage of the most important import infrastructure — and may be used only after the Bundesnetzagentur has declared the emergency level. It is to be financed through a levy on every kilowatt hour of gas, first due on 1 October 2027 and adjustable each year thereafter. The ministry estimates the cost at 247 to 308 million euros a year over the first ten years; for a household the draft reckons on 3.77 to 7.20 euros annually. The existing statutory fill-level requirements expire on 31 March 2027 and are replaced by the reserve. What gas costs compared with other energy sources is set out in the overview of heat costs per kilowatt hour.

Who the new gas levy hits

The levy is paid by every gas customer — households, landlords and businesses alike, spread across the energy price on the annual bill. For a household the amount stays small: a good 5 to 7 euros at the model consumption of 20,000 kilowatt hours, around 0.03 to 0.04 cents per kilowatt hour. That is less than the gas storage levy of 0.289 cents abolished in 2024. It becomes more noticeable for larger consumers: a business or property owner billing hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours carries the levy many times over — and has to work it into service charges, as with the CO₂ price.

Why the reserve is right but the messaging is thin

A strategic reserve for sabotage or outage scenarios is understandable after the winter of 2022, and at a few euros a year the levy is no burden a household will feel. Even so, it deserves to be framed honestly: it is the next fixed component on the gas bill, standing alongside the CO₂ price, grid fees and procurement — and none of those components will shrink in 2027.

“A reserve for emergencies makes sense — but it lands as a new levy on every gas bill, on top of the CO₂ price and grid fees, and customers deserve to be told that plainly.” — Pedram Dadgar, Strategic adviser to Green Contracting GmbH. In heating projects I have seen since 2021 that it is not the single item that tips the calculation, but the sum of them. That is precisely why every new levy is one more argument to cut gas consumption where it pays off economically, rather than waiting for prices to fall.

What to do now

1. Work out the 2027 gas bill with every fixed component: the CO₂ price (55–65 €/t), grid fees, procurement and, from October 2027, the gas reserve levy.
2. As a landlord or business, check how the levy is passed on in service-charge and heat billing — along the lines of the CO₂ cost split.
3. Follow the draft bill and the consultation: the level and start date of the levy may still change in cabinet, Bundestag and Bundesrat.