Vienna Energy: Stability for district heating prices despite crises!

Vienna Energy: Stability for district heating prices despite crises!

On April 21, 2025, Vienna announced Energy that district heating prices in Vienna have been stable for two years. This is a pleasing development because the costs for district heating in Vienna are among the cheapest in all of Austria. Details on the prices can be viewed on the federal transparency platform at WaermePreise.at . Vienna Energy has also guaranteed quick and unbureaucratic action in the implementation of discounts for customers.

A central aspect of pricing is the price notice that defines a maximum price. In order to check the appropriateness of the costs, a fairness commission was deployed by the city. The required price adjustments resulted from the market faults as a result of the Ukraine War 2022. Nevertheless, Optimism shows that the prices could be reduced in retrospect for 2022/23 after a first market tension was recognizable. In total, over 600 million euros have been spent on relief measures for district heating studies since 2022.

value protection and market conditions

According to the information from fernwaerme.at , the district heating price in the heat contract with the customers is valued. This value protection is crucial because it defines the price change criteria and brings together various indices for pricing. The aim of these regulations is a predictable price development that takes into account the actual costs of the district heating supplies.

It is important to note that district heating systems in Austria are different and therefore not directly comparable. The technologies that are used in district heating include wood chips, waste heat from waste burning, coupled power generation, geothermal energy and environmental heat. These different generation technologies lead to varying costs.

Influence of gas prices and future developments

A significant factor of influence on district heating prices is gas prices. These have increased significantly in recent years; The Austrian gas price index (ÖGPI) recorded an increase of 465.7%from April 2021 to April 2022. The construction cost index also rose by around 3.7% last year, during the consumer price index and wage index by around 3.4%.

District heating in Austria is working intensively on a medium -term decarbonization of the production in order to reduce the effects of fossil fuels. The use of oil and coal was severely restricted; Oil is only used in exceptional situations. Future energy sources that will play a role are biomass, geothermal energy, solar thermal, waste heat, environmental heat and green gas. However, the energy transition can also lead to cost increases in district heating production, which may result in price increases in the medium term.

In this context, the monitoring and adaptation of the prices by Vienna remains decisive to ensure fair and transparent energy supply in Vienna. Further details on the price developments can be found on the platform of orf.at