Dutch gas prices second highest in Europe

The Netherlands has the second highest gas price in Europe, with Dutch consumers paying about double the EU average. Only Sweden has a higher gas price, Energievergelijk.nl reports after analyzing figures from the Household Energy Price Index on 33 European countries.

Netherlands residents pay 0.2319 euro per kilowatt hour (kWh) of gas, or 2.25 euro per cubic meter of gas, including taxes and grid costs. Sweden pays 0.2379 euros per kWh or 2.31 euros per cubic meter of gas. Gas is significantly cheaper in Germany (0.14 euros per kWh) and Belgium (0.12 euros per kWh).

“We owe our high gas price to a large extent to the high taxes. Over 37 percent of our gas bill consists of government levies, namely energy tax and VAT. Nowhere else in Europe is this share so high,” said Koen Kuijper of Energievergelijk.nl. The rest of the Dutch gas price consists of 57 percent of fixed and variable supply costs paid to the energy supplier and just over 6 percent to grid management costs.

Because gas also plays a significant role in Dutch electricity production, the Netherlands electricity price is also above average. Netherlands residents pay 30.5 euro cents per kWh of electricity, 4 cents more than the European average. The Netherlands has the 10th highest electricity price in Europe.