Electricity Providers Berlin

Choosing the best electricity provider in Berlin can save you a lot of money.

It is recommended to switch electricity provider as soon as you move into your new apartment.

The moment you move in you are automatically signed up with Vattenfall.

The advantage of this is that you have electricity from the moment you move in somewhere, as Vattenfall is the “Grundversorger” in Berlin, and you don’t have to worry about anything.

The disadvantage is that you might pay way more than you should be paying if you don’t compare prices.

For many years, people have had a choice when it comes to choosing an electricity provider in Berlin.

The main reason why some people stay with Vattenfall are that they are too lazy to bother changing, or they are unsure of how the process works.

However, if you switch contracts even with Vattenfall you might find some great deals.

Just don’t move in and then do nothing about your electricity contract, as this will be a waste of money.

Rest assured that changing your electricity provider in Berlin is as easy as ordering food.

You can do it online and the new company even quits your contract with your current electricity provider for you.

Important update 2024: Current situation in Germany with price increases for electricity

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine electricity prices have been skyrocketing.

This was due to a combination of gas shortage (our main source for cheap gas was Russia) and the last nuclear plants in Germany going off the grid.

It was just a matter of time until the electricity providers in Berlin heavily increased their prices for electricity.

The situation even got so bad that the German government put a limit on the price of electricity (40 cents per kWh) – everything above this limit will be paid back to customers.

But as you might have read in the news already – Germany is kind of in a recession right now and the German government cut this so called “Strompreisbremse” again in January 2024.

So now, more than ever, it is crucial you spend some time on research (like we did below) and compare the cheapest electricity providers.

Comparison of Best German Electricity Providers

E WIE EINFACH*

E wie Einfach is probably the best choice, together with Vattenfall, at the moment when it comes to electricity providers in Berlin.

Believe it or not, many electricity companies in Germany are still not offering the chance to sign up online.

And yes, it is not the year 1990 anymore! So E wie einfach has a big advantage over most of its competitors, as it offers the most straight forward online sign-up process you can imagine.

First of all, what you want to know when signing up with a new electricity company is how much you will be paying monthly.

You can do this online by using the price calculator* which considers how many people live in your household, or calculates your monthly fee based on your previous yearly power consumption.

Just fill in all the information you have and E wie einfach will come up with the total you’d have to pay for 1 year.

Right now E Wie Einfach has several options for an electricity contract, but we will focus on the MeinÖko Tarif, as this is the cheapest, it comes with a 12 month price guarantuee during the 12 months of the contract – and best of all it is 100% from renewable energy.

Entega Strom*

Another very good alternative to E Wie Einfach is Entega.

The fact that Entega is focusing their business on renewable energies sets them apart from all the other competitors.

But even with all their electricity coming from environmental friendly ressources, their prices are comparable to those of other electricty providers here in Berlin.

Another positive point to mention about Entega is their outstanding service level.

If there are any problems you can call from mornings until late (no 24/7 hotline though) free of charge.

And furthermore several famous German customer magazines rated Entega with “Sehr gut”, which is the best grade possible.

To compare the prices for yourself you will find a price calculator on their website.

Oh, and also worth mentioning is that you will not have to pay in advance for the whole year.

In the past many people lost their money when dodgy electricity providers charged the clients one year in advance and then went bankrupt.

Vattenfall

As mentioned before, Vattenfall is the Grundversorger in Berlin, which means that you are most likely to be their client when you move to Berlin or move within Berlin.

Of course it is very handy and useful to have electricity straight away, but most people are too lazy to switch contracts or even don’t know that they would be allowed to switch electricity providers.

Therefore, Vattenfall has the big advantage that people are automatically signed up with them from start.

So just to make things clear for you – if you are lazy and do absolutely nothing about an electricity provider in Berlin then you are automatically with Vattenfall in their “Grundversorger-Tarif” and you pay a lot of money.

If you are not lazy and follow our recommendation you visit their site and sign up for the Vattenfall Natur12 Extra (or Natur24 Extra for 24 months) option, which saves you a lot of money compared to their convenient, but expensive, Grundversorger-Tarif.

SimplyGreen Ökostrom

Remember the times when you had to compromise on either saving money or doing something good for the environment?

Well luckily these days are over since you can sign up with SimplyGreen as your electricity provider.

SimplyGreen guarantees 100% green energy when signing up with them.

But even while providing 100% green energy SimplyGreen manages to offer very competitive prices including a price stability guarantee for a whole year.

On top of that you can usually choose from one of the many available bonuses.

As you can see there are many reasons to sign up with SimplyGreen.

But then again, we also have to point out that SimplyGreen is by far the most expensive electricity provider in Berlin in our comparison.

Electricity Price Comparison Sites

Another way to find your new electricity provider in Berlin is by using one of the many price comparison sites.

They might come in handy if you are not sure about what options you have in Berlin, and how much the signing up bonus usually is.

The biggest downside is that these price comparison sites are actually advertising specific electricity providers and get paid in order to show on their sites (either through provisions or deals).

So please use those price comparison sites with caution.

Changing Electricity Providers in Berlin

Most electricity providers in Berlin offer more or less the same rates for electricity, but they differ a lot in service and in one off signing bonuses.

You are eligible to receive these bonuses after sticking around with them for more than 1 year.

So in this case you have to be careful and pick an electricity provider that renews the contract after 1 year just for one month at a time.

Otherwise you are stuck with the same electricity provider for 2 years to get the bonus, or you quit after one year but do not get your signing bonus, which is usually around 100€.

Be aware that in the past some electricity providers like TelDaFax or Flexstrom registered for insolvency, and many of their clients lost a lot of money.

How did this happen? Well, both companies were able to offer really low prices on electricity, mostly way below market price.

But what they did was make the clients pay upfront for the whole year.

To be on the safe side, you should only sign up with electricity providers in Berlin that charge a monthly fee without upfront payments for a whole year.

If you need to sign up with a gas provider in Berlin as well it makes sense to check the best gas and electricity provider, as many companies like E wie einfach offer both services at the same time.

Having fewer different contracts means less hassle.

*Since I love to keep my website as up-to-date as possible for you awesome readers, my content may contain affiliate links. All the links in this post marked with ‘*’ are such affiliate links. Even though I might receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you, all opinions on my website remain my own.

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