Families signing new fixed contracts for electricity in April will see their annual bills rise by 7%, while fixed gas contracts will increase by 24%, according to calculations released on Friday by federal energy regulator CREG.
The rise is driven by the impact of the war in the Middle East, which has caused the energy components of fixed electricity and gas bills to surge by 16.4% and 40.6%, respectively, compared to March.
The CREG advises consumers to keep existing fixed contracts for 2024 and 2025 and to avoid hasty or ill-considered switches to new products.
Existing fixed-price contracts signed up until March remain unaffected by the April price changes.
In Belgium, around 1.3 million households have fixed electricity contracts (out of 5.2 million connections) while 807,000 households have fixed gas contracts (out of 3 million connections).
Contracts with variable pricing, which adjust automatically to shifts in wholesale markets, have also become significantly more expensive due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
