One of the simplest is that data center energy pricing is just simply different from residential energy, because they often get wholesale (plus small markup) rather than residential rates.
The majority of residential rates (about 40 ct/kWh) are taxes and levies, not the actual price of the electricity. That's why industrial rates can be less than half of residential rates.
Can you be more specific? What kind of taxes? VAT is paid by the end consumer so you're not getting out of that one. Are there special consumption taxes on electricity in Germany?
In my experience the largest difference is distribution cost. The mandated distribution monopoly charges a lot (regulated price) to small customers.
A friend of mine is an electrician in Germany who had a lengthy discussion about this with another friend of mine who was drunkenly complaining about how large corporations pay less for electricity. I'll try my best to reconstruct what he said in response.
Residential customers use highly variable amounts of electricity and typically pay a base rate in addition to usage which can have different tiers so additional use may get cheaper if you exceed a certain threshold. Often these contracts also offer month-by-month cancellation or may include a certain period for which the price is guaranteed not to change.
Industrial customers instead often buy bulk volume commitments. Instead of paying per use, they commit to using a certain amount and pay for that exactly. They also generally have much longer running contracts. There are also contracts that directly tie the price to the daily (or in some cases even hourly) market rate, which is usually not an option for residential customers. Their energy use is also generally more predictable than the load required for residential areas with the equivalent consumption so the cost for running and maintaining the grid is lower. Additionally there is a recent trend towards DC power delivery, further cutting costs.
Rooftop solar panels and domestic EV charging actually contribute to the cost of maintaining residential grids because they add to the peak load and variance, both of which have to be compensated for. In other words, per unit of energy sold, residential customers simply have more overhead than large scale business customers.
You need to compare prices again. Residential electricity costs are significantly below your quoted rate for quite some time now. I've just checked and the lowest rate I saw was 21 ct/kWh. Most vendors are somewhere in the 25 to 30 ct/kWh bracket.
Average USA energy prices are (according the Bureau of Labor Statistics) ~$0.18/kWh at the moment, with some folks at $0.40+ (San Francisco, San Diego, Hawaii) while others are as low as $0.13/kWh (Seattle, Saint Lewis)
> The average electricity price for households fell by almost 8 percent at the beginning of 2024 compared to the annual average for 2023 and now amounts to an average of 42.22 ct/kWh (2023: 45.73 ct/kWh; base price included pro rata for a consumption of 3,500 kWh/a ).
I'm at a small local energy provider. I have their most expensive 100% renewable tariff. Even after the invasion the price only went up to 28,36 €ct/kWh.
Yet, my parents pay above 45 to RWE. (That's what cheap nuclear power stations get you I guess.) My father finally changed providers but thanks to the super fair contract has to wait now over a year for it to happen. And thanks to the "Strompreisbremse" I have to subsidise those ass companies.
I think "taxes and levies" is a bit true, but also you pay for distribution. If your power line goes down in your neighborhood, you basically just grumble but it gets fixed. In wholesale connections you pay for the distribution power line (+ maintenance) basically up front, but it doesn't get put in the final wholesale bill.
This isn't to say your local utility isn't wasteful with its ratepayer money; it totally can be. There isn't enough pressure to lower rates. It's just worth saying that these specific "taxes" do have an intended destination, not just general govt.
