02. 07. 10. - 14:00

Wien Energie promises price freeze

Wien Energie has pledged it will not change its consumer prices in the near future.

Company chief Robert Grüneis said today (Fri): "We haven’t got any plans to raise prices for energy and gas."

Grüneis further announced that the Viennese energy provider suffered a three per cent decline in turnover in the first half of the current 2009/2010 business year compared to the same period of the previous business year to 1.5 billion Euros.

The Wien Energie boss said the firm invested more than 100 million Euros in its supply network, adding the plan was to invest an overall 325 million Euros in its facilities throughout this business year.

Anger among customers over soaring prices is meanwhile rising as a recent study revealed that energy and gas had become more expensive in Austria while prices declined on average in the European Union (EU).

Eurostat, the European Commission’s (EC) statistics body, announced a few weeks ago that the average price for energy provided to EU households dropped by 1.5 per cent from the second half of 2008 to the same period of last year – whereas energy provided by Austrian companies soared by 7.7 per cent.

The agency also said gas had become 1.5 per cent more expensive in the EU, adding its price had jumped by 0.7 per cent in Austria.