Electricity prices for big industrial customers stayed at a relatively constant level or even showed a decline during the previous several years in some countries (see Figure 2.17). The EU-average grew under 1% (0.8%) from 2007 to 2012.The highest increase is measured for Poland, where the costs rose by 2.9% in the 5 years from 2007 to 2012. Romania and Germany show decreasing figures with -0.1% (Germany) and -0.3% (Romania). Compared to the fuel price development, the electricity price level can be concluded to be stable.
While electricity is a relevant cost factor in rail transportation, a major share of long-haul goods transports by rail are still carried out by diesel engines. Due to the lack of information on transport performance and fleet shares for diesel and electric driven locomotives, there is no valid way to interpret the cost advantages of electrified rail transports on an aggregated level.