One must keep in mind that many municipalities are shareholders and are making handsome profits from this. And we are currently talking about a net stock market electricity price of around 5 cents.
It depends on your contract. It's true that taxes, grid fees, etc. are added on top. Net:
this is probably more due to the fact that all electricity suppliers have completely different purchasing conditions. Many that are now so expensive stocked up on the spot market earlier. They then suddenly found themselves without electricity deliverable at reasonable conditions. Others had long-term contracts running at conditions that did not (or did) require a drastic increase (at least in the short term).
And some are making outrageous profits. I have a close relative who works in the industry and his employer constantly pays out bonuses and extra salaries to employees to avoid the windfall tax they would otherwise have to pay due to the unexpectedly high revenues. Meaning: The high prices are by far not always justified. But those who can, take it.
Most municipal utilities and energy supply companies (EVUs) under municipal ownership have long-term procurement strategies and tranche plans according to which electricity volumes are continuously purchased. As a rule, 90% of the forecasted volumes are procured one year in advance. The remaining volumes are then purchased on the market in the short term or sold if there are excess procured volumes. The price formation of a supply contract at these EVUs therefore has absolutely nothing to do with the intraday price at 5:00 a.m. on day X. For public companies and basic suppliers there are also legal requirements for procurement to reduce risks. As a result, they can rarely offer the lowest price based on speculation on the spot market, but usually reflect the long-term average price, and with good estimation and intuition, even somewhat lower. Generous profits are not taken there; on the contrary, basic suppliers are obliged to accept customers even if no electricity volumes have been procured in advance and thus have to purchase additional electricity (currently) at high prices. This then affects all existing customers in basic supply at the next price adjustment, where the additional costs are shared. Privately run EVUs have no such requirements and can act differently, especially more riskily. As a result, they can sometimes offer cheaper prices but often quickly encounter liquidity problems during price jumps at the exchange or have to terminate customers. Newer models like t.B. Tibber pass the risk on to the customer and simply earn a flat fee for platform usage by customers or by a surcharge on procurement prices.
By the way, futures prices for the coming week on the EEX are around €200/MWh or 20 ct/kWh for base and €240 for peak (about 75% peak demand - daytime) and for Q1 2023 around €300/MWh. From mid-2023, no one will likely be able to offer 25-30 cents gross per kWh anymore, because prices have then been above €200 (net + grid fees + charges + VAT) for over a year.