Unplugging your Christmas lights on 31 December will save you money, as electricity bills will rise from 1 January 2025. Why? First, although the government has announced the continuation of state aid to stabilise electricity prices, this will be at a reduced level. Second, a new tariff structure for use of the grid will be introduced, affecting the electricity bills of both residential and business customers. Finally, the cost of grid usage charges will also increase.
Electricity bills include three main components: the energy consumed, which makes up the bulk of the bill and is falling thanks to the stabilisation of the markets; the costs of using the network, which are now influenced by power as well as consumption, with the aim of making users more responsible; and taxes/VAT, which are sometimes negative for recipients of state aid.
Individuals most affected by the increase
“Households consuming less than 25,000 KWH per year, which receive state aid, will see their bills rise by an average of 30%. This increase is due to the reduction in aid and the introduction of the new network tariff structure,” explains Enovos CEO .
From now on, the cost of using the grid will no longer be based solely on the energy consumed, but also on the power used. This is in response to a rise in energy flows caused by an increase in simultaneous uses, such as recharging an electric car or using energy-hungry appliances such as heat pumps. These situations can create power peaks that can overwhelm the network.
To limit these effects, pricing will include a component reflecting the power used. The network operator allocates the optimum reference power to each customer on the basis of their consumption over the last 12 months. For example, a customer with a reference power category of 7 kW will pay a fixed monthly charge of €19.27, plus a charge based on the volume consumed. , which can be significant for intensive uses such as recharging electric vehicles.
Overruns will be billed at a higher rate. Graphic: ILR
Compared with the previous year, electricity prices are falling overall. However, they are still much higher than before the crisis caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. State aid, although reduced, will help to partially offset this increase for households consuming less than 25,000 KWH per year.
A different situation for business customers
Businesses connected to the low-voltage network, which do not benefit from state aid, will see a variety of tariff changes.
“For example, professionals using products such as ‘nova naturstroum’ could see an overall reduction in their bill of up to 6%,” says Von Scholz. However, this overall reduction masks variations between the different components of the bill.
Enovos CEO Erik von Scholz explains that customers receiving subsidies will be the most affected by the tariff changes. Photo: Eva Krins/Maison Moderne
Let’s take the concrete case of a bakery consuming 57,000 KWH per year. Its annual bill would fall by around €1,250. This is due to a €1,850 reduction in the cost of energy, while network costs increase by €600. Tariffs for customers connected to a low-voltage substation vary according to their amperage. For example, a connection with a current of 40 A generates a fixed monthly charge of €15.91, while a connection with a current of 100 A generates a fixed monthly charge of €36.76. These differences reflect the fairness sought in calculating usage costs.
Customers connected to the medium- and high-voltage networks will also benefit from lower network usage charges, reflecting a more balanced distribution of costs between the different voltage levels.
This article was originally published in .