Energy expenditure is taking up more and more space in household budgets and from now on, Engie will no longer offer fixed gas and electricity contracts to its customers. In Wallonia, only Luminus now offers (still for how long?) new fixed-rate contracts. In this context, is it still worth changing supplier?
Only variable formulas are now available on the market. Olivier Desclée, the spokesperson for Engie, explains: “If we wanted to offer fixed prices to our customers, they would be at such a high level that for us, it’s really not good for such a customer to put him at such a level. It is really very difficult to go to the markets to find fixed price electricity supply contracts.”
In view of the prices on the wholesale markets, the suppliers cannot either find what to supply themselves at stable prices in order to then be able to guarantee them to you. A situation that will last as long as prices remain at these record levels. “This is of course a temporary situation and that we are really monitoring on a daily basis and as soon as we can offer fixed contracts to our customers again, we will of course do so.”
Despite variable rate contracts only, comparing remains interesting. For an average consumption of gas and electricity, there is a way to find differences of more than 1000€ per year. And then, there are no small savings: switching off a power strip or lowering your heating by one degree will be all the more interesting as the prices are high.