The Verbund Naturstrom. Green electricity tariff focuses on Alpine hydropower

The Verbund Naturstrom tariff starts in a very physical place: cold spray from an Alpine dam, the humming of turbines deep in the gallery, and cables that carry this movement straight into a customer’s kitchen light. What looks abstract on a bill becomes very tangible here.

What Verbund Naturstrom offers

Verbund Naturstrom is a green electricity tariff for private households that is based on 100% electricity from renewable sources, with a strong focus on Austrian hydropower. On its product page, Verbund describes the tariff as certified green power with full disclosure of the generation mix.

Most of the energy for Naturstrom comes from company-owned run-of-river and storage power plants along the Danube and in Alpine regions, supplemented by other renewable assets such as wind farms and photovoltaic plants. Customers receive a legally required electricity mix declaration that shows the renewable share as 100% and documents the use of guarantees of origin.

Pricing, contracts and certification

On the Austrian retail site, Verbund lists Naturstrom with a consumption-dependent working price per kilowatt-hour plus a basic fee per year, both specific to the customer’s postal code and meter profile. The company uses an online calculator where users enter their annual kWh consumption to receive an individual quote.

As a reference, the Austrian regulator E-Control shows that typical green tariffs in 2024 ranged around several tens of eurocents per kWh including taxes and network charges, depending on region and provider. Verbund positions Naturstrom within this competitive band and points to longer-term price stability supported by its hydropower fleet.

How customers sign up and use it

Product manager statements in Verbund marketing materials emphasize a simple onboarding process: new customers can switch to Verbund Naturstrom via an online form, usually with digital signature, or by phone. The company then handles the entire provider change process with the grid operator and the previous supplier.

Customers can combine the tariff with a smart meter or conventional meter. In smart-meter households, consumption data is read automatically, which Verbund uses for more precise billing and to offer optional services like time-of-use analysis. In many Austrian states, smart meter rollout is already advanced, making such offers tangible.

Hydropower backbone and system role

Verbund operates one of the largest hydropower fleets in Europe, with around 130 hydropower plants and a generation share of about 90% from renewable sources, mainly hydro. CEO Michael Strugl regularly underlines in interviews that this base enables competitive green tariffs for households and businesses.

Run-of-river plants along the Danube deliver baseload electricity, while storage and pumped-storage plants in the Alps provide flexible peak power and balancing energy. These assets help stabilize the grid during periods of high feed-in from wind and solar, a role that Verbund highlights in system responsibility discussions.

Product extensions: from Naturstrom to prosumer

While Verbund Naturstrom is a classic consumption tariff, the company increasingly bundles it with prosumer offerings. Homeowners can combine the contract with rooftop photovoltaic packages marketed by Verbund, which include panels, inverters and installation in cooperation with partners. Excess solar power can be fed into the grid under separate feed-in tariffs.

For some customer segments, Verbund also promotes e-mobility tariffs that pair Naturstrom or similar green products with home charging solutions for electric vehicles. This makes the living room light, rooftop PV and the wallbox part of a single product universe that Verbund controls commercially.

Regulatory environment and guarantees of origin

In Austria, electricity suppliers must disclose their generation mix annually and document renewable energy via guarantees of origin and so-called Herkunftsnachweise. Verbund states that Naturstrom is backed completely by such certificates and by physical production from its own plants.

The company points to TÜV and national certification schemes to underline that the tariff meets recognized green power criteria. Independent comparisons on Austrian consumer portals classify Verbund Naturstrom as a green tariff, though they often remind users to compare final prices including taxes and grid fees.

How Naturstrom fits the Verbund story

For Verbund, Naturstrom is more than a line item on the product sheet. It shows how a historically wholesale-focused hydropower group increasingly monetizes its assets in the retail segment. The tariff channels production from big dams directly into the monthly bills of families and small businesses.

On the Vienna Stock Exchange, Verbund AG stock (ISIN AT0000746409) represents this mix of large-scale hydropower generation and growing retail and prosumer business, with green tariffs like Naturstrom contributing progressively to recurring revenues.