European Industry Pays Twice as Much for Power
Electricity is one of the largest operating costs for water utilities, biogas plants and energy-intensive industry. A new BloombergNEF (BNEF) analysis compares retail power prices in 37 markets from 2019 to 2025, and its findings make uncomfortable reading for European industry. In 2025 a German industrial customer paid twice as much per megawatt-hour as an American one, and a British customer three times as much (Cuming, 2026).
Hungarian data add a further twist. According to Eurostat figures for the first half of 2026, updated on 19 October, Hungarian businesses pay more for power than German ones before VAT, and taxes are not the reason.
37 markets, six years, adjusted for inflation
BNEF compared household and industrial retail prices in real terms, in US dollars, between 2019 and 2025. The US figure averages all 50 states and Washington DC. In about three-quarters of the markets, power prices rose faster than inflation. Industrial prices rose by 24% in real terms on average, household prices by 12% (Cuming, 2026).
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