‘Hidden’ hikes in power bills
The price of electricity per kilowatt-hour may have been decreasing continuously in recent months following the de-escalation of the price of natural gas, but the total electricity bill still happens to have increased and is even expected to increase further in the coming months. The reason is regulatory charges, for which there is no escape route for consumers, since they are common to all providers.
These are the charges that businesses and households pay through their electricity bills for the use of the system managed by the Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE), the use of the network managed by DEDDIE and the Public Benefit Services that cover the subsidized tariff of the non-interconnected islands and the subsidized tariff of vulnerable consumers who join the social rates.
The first “invisible” hikes for consumers, who have been eagerly searching for the lowest price per kilowatt-hour among providers for many months now, came last September. From September 1, the ADMIE system charges were adjusted for households and businesses connected to low voltage from 6.35 euros per megawatt-hour to €9.78/MWh, for medium-voltage businesses from €1.384/MWh to €3.869/MWh, and for high-voltage businesses (energy-intensive industries) from €1.963/MWh to €3.728/MWh.
The second “hidden” increase came from May 1 in network charges paid through electricity bills and end up in the coffers of DEDDIE, in implementation. With the same decision RAE implemented a new methodology for calculating network charges. To date, the highest amount of charges corresponded to 80% energy (i.e. consumption) and 20% power (single-phase or three-phase). With the new methodology, the energy charges correspond to 60% and 40%, based on a motivation rationale for consumers to transfer three-phase consumption to single-phase consumption in order to have lower charges. The power charge was adjusted from May to €4.434 per KVA per year from €0.52 today and the energy charge was reduced to €0.01415/KWh from €0.0213/KWh.
All these adjustments burden the electricity bill of an average household by 7.5%.
