The federal cabinet has paved the way for the gas and electricity price brakes planned for next year. As the Federal Ministry of Economics announced on Friday afternoon, the two draft laws on the relief for energy customers have now cleared the next hurdle. The Bundestag and Bundesrat are then to make a final decision on the energy brakes in December so that they can come into force as planned in the coming year.

The federal government is reacting to the sharp rise in energy prices with price brakes worth billions. They are intended to cushion the burden on households and companies from the coming year. It is planned that electricity, gas and heating prices will be limited for a proportion of consumption. As a first step, the Bundestag and Bundesrat had already decided on a December one-off payment that should benefit district heating and gas customers.

With the gas price brake, households and small and medium-sized companies are to receive a guaranteed gross gas price of 12 cents per kilowatt hour for 80 percent of their previous consumption. For heat customers, the price should be 9.5 percent up to the 80 percent limit. The contract price should apply to the remaining 20 percent of consumption. To reduce the electricity price, households and small companies are to receive 80 percent of their current consumption at a guaranteed gross price of 40 cents per kilowatt hour.

The brakes, which were limited to April 2024, were originally intended to take effect from March next year. Citizens and companies are now to be relieved retrospectively for January and February. In March, the relief amounts for the two previous months are to be taken into account.