District heating: Term of heat supply contract 10 or 20 years?

The base fee is fixed, the usage price variable and is based on the index.

At what price does the usage price start?

What crossed my mind earlier (this is probably better understood in the house building forum): I am 40, when in 20 years I have to decide what to do regarding heating, I will probably think that a major renovation is not worth it because the kids will soon move out and the house will then be too big for us and we will sell anyway. If we still live there for another 10-20 years, we will live with some kind of saving/compromise solution. If we install a heat pump in 10 years, it will run until I am 70 and even if not, the necessary renovation will have already been done and it can be replaced.

I'm not quite sure where this is headed. Planning so far into the future is always difficult, you can only decide that for yourself. We can't calculate that for you either. For example, I am 30 and want to create a nice home and a small paradise in the garden. Whether it will be too big for me at retirement, I'll see spontaneously then. But it will be paid off by then and I probably won’t be able to live anywhere cheaper. Maybe by then I’ll have the wildest hobbies and need an extra room for them. Maybe the kids will take it then. Who knows. Maybe in 20 years there will be a new local heating contract that is even cheaper. Maybe in 20 years there will be a completely new heating technology. Maybe nuclear fusion will succeed and it will be so cheap that we all heat with pure electricity. Nobody knows. What I want to say is, of course, you can only decide based on the information available to you now. Calculate it again and then decide.

At what price does the working price start?

0.10597 €/kWh

The price adjustment clause is then:

AP new = AP 0 * (0.7°(0.3*(St/St 0) + 0.7*(G/G0)) + 0.3*(FW/FW0))

AP new = new working price in €/kWh
AP 0 = working price at contract conclusion

St = respective annual electricity index for individual consumption from the published data on energy price development of the Federal Statistical Office Wiesbaden of the year preceding the delivery year.
(Table code CC 13-04510): 120.80 annual average 2022

St0 = initial value of the electricity index for individual consumption 2020 = 100, rebased to 2020=100; informative:
2019 = 106.80 base year 2015 = 100

G = respective annual consumer price index for natural gas without surcharges from the published data on energy price development of the Federal Statistical Office Wiesbaden of the year preceding the delivery year.
(Table code CC 13-0452103000): 171.5 average 2022

G0 = initial value of the consumer price index for natural gas without surcharges 2020 = 100, rebased to 2020=100;
informative: 2019 = 95.80 base year 2015 = 100

FW = respective annual consumer price index heat price index (district heating, including surcharges) from the published data on energy price development of the Federal Statistical Office Wiesbaden of the year preceding the delivery year. (Table code CC13-77): 126.3 2022

FW0 = initial value of the consumer price index heat price (district heating, including surcharges) 2020 = 100,
rebased to 2020 = 100; informative: 2019 = 96.4 base year 2015 = 100

BG = actual additional costs required share biogas/ biomethane in € per billing year divided by
total delivered heat quantity (kWh) in €/kWh

Explanation of BG: Additional costs = actual incurred procurement costs biogas minus actual incurred natural gas costs (each weighted average prices over the quantity)

Do I understand correctly that the price is partly based on electricity & FW, but mostly on the current gas price? According to destatis, the consumer price includes taxes (For price measurement, the purchase prices including sales tax (value-added tax) and consumption taxes are observed). Since I would expect substantial tax increases on gas in the future (logical, because of a lot of CO2) and the working price is already relatively expensive, the calculation probably no longer adds up.

I would also be very careful to sign such a long-term contract that is linked to the gas price. No one can say where the CO2 price will be after 2030. When seriously considering the climate targets, however, we are talking about a few ct(!) per kWh extra.