As we announced, electricity and gas prices are up in May. But a slight increase. We are very far from an outbreak. And the trend towards stability should be confirmed for the month of June.
However, we are also witnessing competition between different group purchasing offers in the Cwape comparator (the Walloon energy regulator). However, these offers have one thing in common: it is the same supplier, Mega, which won.
Very slight increase
First, let’s compare prices excluding group purchases. To do this, we use the example of a typical Walloon customer, living in Namur and consuming 3,500 kWh of electricity annually (1,900 during off-peak hours, 1,600 during peak hours) and 23,260 kWh of gas. We compare the cheapest products from month to month.
> Electricity. In fixed rates, it is the Octa + supplier which remains the cheapest, as in April. For the consumption studied, we go from 1,186 euros in April to 1,207 euros in May for the annual bill. An increase of 21 euros, therefore. The Luminus Basic Fix contract goes from 1,214 to 1,226 euros. As we can see, in fixed rates, the increase is slight. It is fairly equivalent on variable rates. There, the cheapest in April and May is the Basic Flex (we do not take into account Mega’s Prepaid contract). We go from 990 to 1,011 euros between April and May. Note that the difference between a fixed contract and a variable contract is almost 200 euros for the cheapest.
> Gas. In fixed price, the cheapest in April was Engie’s Easy, at 2,123 euros. In May, this contract climbed to 2,209 euros, being knocked out of the cheaper place by Mega’s Smart Fixed, at 2,201 euros. We therefore record an annual increase of 80 euros, or a little less than 4%. Remember that the consumption taken into account (23,260 kWh) is quite significant. The increase is fairly equivalent in variable prices. It is still the Basic Flex contract from Luminus which holds the rope. It goes from 1,728 to 1,799 euros between April and May. The classification between the different products of the suppliers hardly changes. And here too, we will note the big difference between fixed and variable contracts: 400 euros more for fixed!
Group purchases
What is striking in May is to see the group purchasing proposals. They are quite close, which is quite logical since the supplier is the same each time. But there is still slight competition and, above all, these purchases offer a cheaper price than traditional contracts.
Another characteristic is that there are group purchases of both fixed products and variable products. Concretely, if we resume electricity, a fixed contract via Testachats (May 2023 contract) costs 1,138 euros, the Mr Energie contract is 1,199 euros while the fixed Octa + is 1,207 euros. In variable terms, the cheapest is the contract negotiated by Wikipower in April 2024 which is the least expensive, at 997 euros, compared to 1,011 for the Basic Flex contract from Luminus.
For gas, there are also two group purchases at fixed prices and two at variable prices. The cheapest of the fixed ones is that of 2023 from Testachats, at 1,983 euros. As a reminder, the cheapest contract excluding group purchases is 2,201 euros. In variable terms, the Testachats offer of 2023 and that of Wikipower of April 2024 are roughly equivalent, a little above 1,750 euros. The cheapest excluding group purchases is 1,799 euros.
The difference here is not significant but it must be taken into account that group purchases also offer services that cheap contracts do not offer.
Benoit Jacquemart
