New electricity providers take advantage of digital solutions to enter German market

New electricity providers that focus on green electricity and make extensive use of digitalisation are entering the German market despite the already stiff competition among its currently 1,300 suppliers, Helmut Bünder, Philip Plickert and Niklas Záboji write in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Online tools are creating greater price transparency and make it possible to change providers with only a few clicks, making digital competence a success factor on the electricity market, the authors write. "We see the electricity industry in a kind of pioneering position when it comes to digitalisation options," Jan Oetjen, managing director of Germany's largest e-mail provider web.de, told FAZ. Digitising processes, from buying electricity on the stock exchange to sales, can reduce costs, which gives web.de an advantage by using its database of 30 million users that can be approached online, FAZ writes.

Other newcomers on the German electricity market come from abroad. Norwegian start-up Tibber offers green electricity at the purchase price in a subscription model that can be cancelled monthly. The company also makes the flexible purchase of electricity possible via an app, so that, for example, laundry can be done when prices are lowest. However, the latter requires a digital measuring and controlling device, a so-called ‘smart meter’, which are not very widespread in Germany. British company Octopus Energy also has high ambitions for the German electricity market and now plans to invest 80 million euros for its expansion there.