“Comparison of Gas Suppliers for Households in the Open Natural Gas Market: Latvijas gāze, Elenger, and Latvenergo”

Three companies offer gas supply to households in the open natural gas market.

“Latvijas gāze” continues to provide customers with natural gas supply at the market price as part of the universal service. Currently, the company has around 360,000 household customers, and within the framework of the universal service, the price of natural gas is fixed for six months. Compared to the previously regulated tariff, the price has been reduced by 20% to 40%, depending on the user group.

There are two other players in the market. Elenger, a subsidiary of the Estonian company “Eesti Gaas”, made its offer to households in the natural gas market in April and concluded the first contracts with customers in May. Currently, the company’s clientele includes around 2,000 households – recipients of natural gas. They are mostly houses where natural gas is used for heating, but also for cooking. Also, there are also several apartment building associations in the circle of customers, which use natural gas for heating and water heating, said Dāvis Skulte, chairman of the board of “Elenger”.

“We consider it a better result than we expected. However, we are a new player and unknown to the general public.

The main reason why the natural gas market is open is the options, and the prices are also already formed according to the market situation. For customers who have chosen the flexible plan, we have already reduced the prices twice – both from May and June, and we have already set the same for July as well. It’s the way it should be, the way the market works.”

According to the flexible plan, the natural gas costs set by “Elenger” from July 1 are set at 7.2 cents per kilowatt hour or 77 cents per cubic meter for heating, and 11 cents per kilowatt hour or 1.16 euros per cubic meter for cooking. The company informs the customer 30 days in advance of changes in the price of natural gas, and termination of the contract at any time is free of charge. On the other hand, the fixed plan with a contract for 12 months from July 1 foresees the total cost of gas for home heating at 8.4 cents per kilowatt hour or 89 cents per cubic meter.

The third company that supplies natural gas to households is “Latvenergo”, which offers the service under the “Elektrum” brand and has been on this market since 2019. The number of the company’s customers among households was around 20,000 at the end of last year, in April it had already grown to 30,000 and now it has reached around 40,000 households, said Uldis Mucinieks, sales manager of “Latvenergo”.

“What we can say at the end of the most active market opening phase is that activity was a bit lower than market participants expected.

I would venture to think that around 5 to 10% of customers changed their dealer. Greater activity was certainly in the heating segment, because there the interest of customers in offers of different prices for heating bills is naturally much higher than where natural gas is used only in the kitchen,” said the representative of “Latvenergo”.

According to Muciniekas, “Latvenergo” gradually plans to reach 20-30% in the natural gas market for households.

Companies predict that there will again be a greater wave of interest in natural gas prices and a possible change of supplier closer to autumn and the next heating season.

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