CHRONOLOGY-Competition in German retail energy

* RWE updates retail customer numbers

* TelDaFax gives power away to lure new clients

* Energiegut passes 100,000 customer threshold

Aug 13 - More German households have switched electricity and gas suppliers under a European Union rule, from July 1, 2007, which gave consumers a choice of provider.

Following is a chronology of customer switches and price trends in the market of 40 million households in Europe's biggest economy.

Latest entries are marked ***

Aug - RWE (RWEG.DE)*** says in its report for first half 2009 that is has added 60,000 private customers in the period, mostly thanks to its internet brand Eprimo, which had 577,000 customers in total at the end of June.

RWE also added 14,000 German gas customers in the six months.

Its power prices were up 5 percent year-on-year in the period due to higher wholesale procurement prices ahead of the year. Many customers are opting for new renewable products as well as for fixed price tariffs.

Aug - Three-year old supplier TelDaFax Energie*** of Troisdorf offers new customers up to two months of power supply for free if they sign up for at least a year by end-September.

Teldafax customers can choose a tariff depending on how much and how often they pay in advance. It has over 500,000 customers.

Aug - The internet brand Energiegut of western German utility group Trianel*** has amassed more than 100,000 power customers in less than two years of operations. New orders grew more than 40 percent in the past seven months.

Its business idea includes bonus payments to customers who prove they cut energy usage.

July - Internet portal Toptarif, which monitors prices and encourages switching, says household gas prices charged by 55 suppliers it monitors will be cut by an average 9.8 percent as of August or September.

In contrast to power, retail gas prices have kept falling as a result of falling crude oil, to which gas is index-linked with a time lag of six months.

Toptarif therefore thinks, according to its research, that some 50 more suppliers will make more cuts in October when the heating season starts, including market leader E.ON (EONGn.DE).

But another portal, Verivox, has warned that oil's price recovery since the spring would mean that gas prices may go up again between five and 10 percent at the end of the year 2009.

Oil has gained $30 since its 2009 lows.

July - Hamburg newspaper Abendblatt said that nuclear glitches at northern German nuclear operator Vattenfall Europe [VATN.UL] have attracted customers away from the company which has a retail focus in the cities of Hamburg and Berlin.

The incidents have highlighted nuclear safety issues in an election year and documented there is a link between critical consumers' views and their choice of power company.

July - Retail power prices have been slow to fall, unlike those of gas, as operators cited last year's wholsale market rallies, saying they had yet to be passed on to end consumers.

But Toptarif notes the first noticeable price cut announcements. Badenova in Baden Wuerttemberg and the Coesfeld utility in North-Rhine Westphalia are to lower tariffs as of August.

The moves by the small players could put pressure on RWE and E.ON (EONGn.DE), which so far have been holding on price hikes.

Power companies across the nation have raised retail prices by some 8 percent on average in the year to date, with big player EnBW in the vicinity of Badenova raising prices in July.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert)