ᐅ Main utility connection to the house – should you switch providers afterward?

Hello and Happy New Year to everyone. I have been following this forum for a while now. This year, we are building our single-family home near Hamburg.

I am currently dealing with the topic of utility connections: the basic supplier and connection costs are clear to me – but my question is whether your utility connection agreements included a minimum contract term with the basic supplier, or if you were able to switch directly to your preferred providers. There can be quite a significant price difference!

Best regards, Kai123

P.S. This thread was actually meant to be posted under Building Services / Sustainability, not sure how I ended up in Construction Financing. Professionals at work.

I’m going out on a limb here and would say that you can switch immediately—or with a two-week notice period or something similar (at least that’s how it worked for us).

It was the same for us. We canceled with the main utility provider immediately after the connection. Then we only had the 4-week notice period.

It is important to choose the basic rate with the main utility provider. If you select a different tariff, you might end up signing a 12- or 24-month contract.

I just finished this – I was with RWE at around 30 cents/kWh and have now switched to a supplier from Bavaria, where I am paying about 18 cents/kWh.

The cancellation by the new supplier took almost 20 days from termination to the switch.

Interesting how much this varies by region. For us, RWE is one of the most affordable providers (if you don’t switch every year to get the bonuses) and clearly below 30°C (86°F). Cancellation and switching with the energy supplier also took only a few weeks.

I can mention the regional Maingau provider – especially interesting for heat pump owners without a second meter (many cheaper providers exclude heat pumps, probably because the daily consumption distribution is unfavorable – as electricity is known to be more expensive at night).