While household energy bills continued to spiral out of control in several European capitals in September, Hungarian homes with an annual average energy consumption continued to have access to natural gas and electricity at favorable prices, the Hungarian Energy and Public Utilities Office (MEKH) told the MTI news outlet on Friday.
An international price comparison study conducted in September registered a significant increase in energy prices in several European capitals. According to the research, the price of electricity to be paid by residential consumers rose by 47 percent in Stockholm, 41 percent in Tallinn, and 23 percent in Berlin and Prague, while natural gas was 88 percent more expensive in Tallinn, 36 percent in Vienna, and 23 percent more in Amsterdam compared to the previous month.
Meanwhile, the utility costs of Hungarian consumers did not increase in September, and last month Hungarian consumers paid the second cheapest price (9.22 cents/kWh) for electricity in the case of an average annual consumption of 2,523 kilowatt hours (kWh) in the utility-protected price category. Households consuming 20 percent more than the annual average consumption were able to get electricity at a price of 10.63 eurocents/kWh, which is also the second-cheapest price in Europe.
Natural gas, which can be purchased at a reduced utility price, was also the cheapest in Hungary in September, according to the research. In the case of average consumption (63,645 megajoules), Hungarian consumers still paid the lowest price for natural gas in August (2.53 eurocents/kWh). In the case of consumption exceeding the average by 20 percent, Hungarian households received natural gas at a price of 5.07 eurocents/kWh, which is the second most favorable price compared to other European nations.
MEKH’s monthly price comparison, developed on the basis of international standards, presents electricity and natural gas prices in European capitals. The basic survey is carried out by Energie-Control Austria and the Finnish company VaasaETT, commissioned by MEKH.
