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Save electricity in 2026: Eastern Germany benefits, NRW stays behind!
As early as 2026, households in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will benefit from falling electricity costs through planned federal subsidies.
Save electricity in 2026: Eastern Germany benefits, NRW stays behind!
It will be interesting to see what will happen when it comes to electricity costs in 2026! The federal government has announced a big step: relief worth billions is to be launched for private households, businesses and industry. But as is often the case, there are winners and losers. According to a report by Mercury It looks like East Germany in particular will benefit from the new regulations, while North Rhine-Westphalia will come away empty-handed.
How exactly will this relief be felt? The average reduction in network fees for household customers is 17.2 percent, which amounts to around two cents per kilowatt hour. The government is planning a federal subsidy of 6.5 billion euros annually, which is intended to specifically reduce transmission network costs. The parliamentary process for the relevant law is already underway. In many regions, especially in eastern Germany, this subsidy will be clearly noticeable, while in North Rhine-Westphalia the discounts often do not even amount to a cent.
Inequality in relief
Austrians know this: there are always those who have a good hand and those who are left behind. In this case, commercial and industrial customers in particular benefit disproportionately from the relief. According to the Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv), the relief is distributed very unevenly. While large companies benefit from special regulations on network fees, private households bear the majority of the costs.
For the residents of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt, the relief amounts to a hefty three cents per kilowatt hour. In contrast, federal states such as Bavaria offer average relief of 2.6 cents. There are also high declines, particularly in certain postal code areas, such as in Partenstein in Bavaria, where the relief is 6.18 cents. This can be seen particularly well in a table of network fees, which shows the different changes by federal state:
| Federal State | Network fee 2026 (in euros) | The change (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Baden-Württemberg | 390 | -17 |
| Bavaria | 313 | -20 |
| Berlin | 342 | -23 |
| Brandenburg | 318 | -23 |
| Bremen | 298 | -8 |
| Hamburg | 471 | -17 |
| Hesse | 377 | -13 |
| Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | 296 | -22 |
| Lower Saxony | 321 | -18 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 391 | -12 |
| Rhineland palatinates | 409 | -14 |
| Saarland | 345 | -13 |
| Saxony | 345 | -12 |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 340 | -15 |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 346 | -17 |
| Thuringia | 328 | -16 |
An uncertain future
Overall, there will be a manageable relief effect in urban areas the Federal Network Agency determines. This raises the question of what the effects of the new regulations will ultimately be. The final network fees will be published on January 1, 2026, until then it will remain exciting.
Another important development to note is the falling network fees in regions with a high feed-in of renewable energies, such as in areas with strong growth in wind and solar energy. Visitors should therefore be aware that the first changes in this area will already be noticeable in 2025, which will once again show how important renewable energies are for the future design of our electricity supply.
It remains to be hoped that these developments will not only benefit large companies, but also private households. After all, everyone wants to keep a little money in their pocket - and that's worth it!