Energy group BKW is on the rise – Is our Gas and soon cheaper?The gas market is to be opened. Hundreds of thousands would not benefit from it, however. Rita Flubacher3 Kommentare3Wer want to cook with Gas, should be able to select in the future, how he wants to relate to the raw materials.Photo: Valerii Vtoryhin ()

The good news: The energy provider, BKW intends to offer its customers in addition to current re-Gas. The bad news is that this revival of competition in the energy market will not be able to benefit the owner of the house with a gas heater in the basement and the tenant who likes to cook with Gas.

Because, as in the electricity market, where the opening of the market came earlier, is repeated in the gas market is the Same: small customers do not choose the cheapest supplier and price disadvantage. It’s called a partial opening of the market.

what’s going on here, outlined by the competition Commission (Comco) this spring in a report to a new gas supply law. There is only a partial opening of the market, what is suggested on pressure of the energy providers in the draft law, would put smaller commercial and household customers, “today’s high margins in the natural gas supply continues to in the bill”. This gave the Affected an “annual burden, in the mid-double-digit million range”. The competition Commission is talking of 360’000 final customers, which would not have the opportunity to choose their natural gas supplier. They were still the monopoly of the network operator.

Disadvantaged customers must hope that the competition Commission can intervene on the basis of a lawsuit.

The disadvantaged customers must hope that the competition Commission can intervene on the basis of a lawsuit. This happened for the first time in Central Switzerland: The EWL Energie Wasser Luzern Holding company and the natural gas of Central Switzerland AG refused to allow a third-party supplier through to delivery to customers in the city of Lucerne. The Comco came to the conclusion that the two companies had misused its dominant position in the Transport and distribution of natural gas miss. To escape, probably to a steep buses, have completed the two-party to a “friendly settlement”, as last week it became known. According to the Comco-Director Patrik Ducrey more complaints from other parts of the country are pending, which could be solved after the Central Swiss type.

Liechtenstein shows how to do it

For the End customers of such a mean to Decide that you can benefit if you want. However, you need to first find a new supplier, and then the request line. Patrik Ducrey does not exclude the possibility that the existing gas suppliers to reduce prices and “competitive price” offer, to avoid such third-party deliveries.

What competition can achieve, shows the example of Liechtenstein. The legal anchoring of the Right to access to the network for the supply of all final customers led according to the Comco, the prices in the period from October 2014 to September 2018 declined with the end users by 40 percent.

in addition to the BKW, other energy companies are interested, apparently, in the gas market. The energy company, Alpiq is Switzerland still on the gas market. On request, a speaker explains that you will check the entry as soon as with the creation of the gas act, the conditions would be improved. However, Alpiq had, in the positive case, only industrial and wholesale customers in the visor.

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