Num­ber of electricity and gas cus­tomers switch­ing sup­pli­er in­creas­es again

Year of issue 2025
Date of issue 2025.07.14

The Bundesnetzagentur has today published consumer figures from its energy monitoring.

"The high number of customers switching supplier in 2024 shows that consumers are looking out for better conditions. This is a good sign for competition and the energy transition," said Klaus Müller, President of the Bundesnetzagentur. "Our figures show that customers switching from a default contract can make savings of several hundred euros a year. In 2024 alone, German household customers were able to save around €2.2bn in energy costs by switching suppliers or contracts."

Despite high prices, normality is gradually returning to the electricity and gas markets. The Bundesnetzagentur’s latest figures for 2024 show a high level of market activity among household customers. More than 10mn electricity supplier and contract switches (2023: 6mn) and more than 3mn gas switches (2023: 1.8mn) show that consumers are benefiting again more from improved conditions.

Lower proportion of default supply customers – more dynamic competition

In 2024 the percentage of consumers on default contracts fell again. About 23% of electricity customers (2023: 25%) and about 16% of gas customers (2023: 19%) had a default supply contract. Switching to competitive suppliers is particularly attractive at the moment. Household electricity customers paid an average of 40.1 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) as at 1 April 2025, a decrease of around 4% from the previous year. Customers with a supplier other than their default supplier paid an average of 38.2 ct/kWh. For gas customers, too, alternative suppliers’ prices were the lowest at an average of 11.6 ct/kWh.

The numbers of customers switching supplier reached record highs last year. About 7.1mn electricity and 2.2mn gas customers switched supplier – an increase of 18% and 22% respectively from 2023. Another 3.3mn electricity and 1.2mn gas customers took the initiative to switch tariff with their existing supplier.

Increase in disconnections

There are still challenges despite the positive developments in the market. The number of supply disconnections increased in 2024 by around 20% to 245,000 for electricity customers and to 33,700 for gas customers. Reasons for this include the rise in energy prices and possible delayed effects from previous years when many providers had voluntarily waived disconnections.

Further information and analyses are available on the SMARD energy data platform at www.smard.de/217372. The full monitoring report will be published jointly with the Bundeskartellamt in November 2025.