Electricity prices rose by 16% in two years

With about 490 kWh electricity consumption I am a rather small customer. Over the year this sums up to about 160 EUR. So I had a look at the costs.

I was suprised to learn that the prices rose quite clearly. My tariff is two-part, a base price and a kilowatt-hour rate. If I look at the total costs and divide them by my consumption, I get

year	EUR-Cent/kWh
2008	29.8
2009	33.1
2010	34.6

This means, in 2010 I had to pay 4% more than in 2009 and 16% more than in 2008. My energy use per day, on the other side, remained quite stable at 1.35 kWh/day.

What can I do about it? The first impulse was to collect more data, maybe by using a WiFi energy sensor. Would be really fun. However, I can not see many options to reduce my consumption. Maybe I can turn off the internet router while at work.

It seems more sensible to me to switch my energy provider, which I did today. My new energy provider will charge a bit more, but gives me 50 EUR new-customer bonus and claims to deliver certified renewable energy.