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The shape of a German electricity bill

Every household tariff in Germany is built from two charges: On a Nomos dynamic plan the variable price moves with EPEX spot prices every 15 minutes; the base price is steady.

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What’s inside the base price

Annual charges, billed monthly. Surfaced on Retrieve a quote under the base object. For Module 1 ordering, see §14a grid fee reductions.

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What’s inside the variable price

Per 15-minute interval, summed in this order. Per-customer interval prices for an active subscription are on Retrieve a price time series, with components broken out as electricity, grid, and levies. Prices returned by the API are gross; VAT (19%) is already included in every component.

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Components in detail

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EPEX spot price (day-ahead)

The day-ahead auction at EPEX SPOT sets a single clearing price for every 15-minute interval of tomorrow. Bids close at 12:00 CET; results publish from ~12:45 CET, finalised by ~14:20 CET at the latest. Tomorrow’s 96 quarter-hour prices appear in one batch and are final for billing once published; there are no revisions. Auctions occasionally fail or are delayed. The price endpoint omits intervals that haven’t cleared yet, so build your UI to tolerate “tomorrow’s prices not yet available” and avoid placeholders that look like zero-cent intervals.

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Local grid fee (Netzentgelt)

The one component that’s genuinely local. Every customer’s grid fee depends on which distribution system operator (Verteilnetzbetreiber, DSO) runs the wires to their meter. Germany has roughly 850 DSOs, each setting their own annual tariff under § 20 EnWG and the StromNEV. Two customers on the same Nomos plan in different cities see different grid fees. Grid fees vary widely. A rural DSO might charge ~12 ct/kWh; an urban DSO might be closer to 6 ct/kWh. Often a larger slice of the bill than the EPEX spot price itself.

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Time-variable rates under §14a Module 3

Customers with a controllable consumption device (heat pumps, wallboxes, home batteries) registered under §14a EnWG can opt into Module 3, which splits the grid fee into three time windows (high, standard, low). Each DSO publishes its own schedule, and for each 15-minute interval the customer is billed one of the three rates. The price endpoint handles the lookup per subscription. Module 3 requires a smart meter (iMSys), and not every DSO has shipped a usable schedule yet; where a schedule is missing, the endpoint falls back to the static grid fee. For ordering, see §14a grid fee reductions.

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Statutory levies and electricity tax

KWKG (cogeneration), §19 (industrial relief), and the offshore levy fund federal energy programs. They’re set annually per kWh by the four transmission system operators. The electricity tax (Stromsteuer) is a flat federal rate. All flow through unchanged from regulator to bill.