Electricity prices in Austria

Austria has a fully liberalised retail market in which households can choose among many suppliers, with the former regional utilities still serving most customers by default. Hydropower provides the backbone of generation, supplemented by wind, a fast-growing solar fleet, biomass and gas-fired plants that cover winter demand, and the country trades heavily with Germany and its other neighbours.

Bills are issued in euro and are split into an energy component, regulated network charges and a bundle of taxes and levies, so the supplier's price is only part of the total. The regulator, E-Control, oversees network tariffs and publishes comparison tools. Gas, district heating and heat pumps are common for heating, while electric heating is less widespread; rooftop solar on family homes has grown strongly in recent years.