When should I run my washing machine? During the day when you’re generating electricity (if you have solar panels)... or at night if other appliances are already running at a time of high voltage? These are the new calculations you need to make to avoid a rise in your “network” bill. Photo: Shutterstock

When should I run my washing machine? During the day when you’re generating electricity (if you have solar panels)... or at night if other appliances are already running at a time of high voltage? These are the new calculations you need to make to avoid a rise in your “network” bill. Photo: Shutterstock

On Thursday morning, the Luxembourg Regulatory Institute (ILR) presented a reform of the grid tariff--roughly one-third of the price of electricity charged to a private individual--with the aim of moving towards a “dynamic” price structure... but not one that is cheaper. The aim is to make consumers more responsible and prepare for future investment in infrastructure.

What is the difference between “paying no more” and “paying less”? In the first case, the electricity bill will remain relatively similar to what a private individual pays today. In the second case, it would fall. The reform of the ‘network’ tariff presented on 17 October at the headquarters of the energy regulator clearly falls into the former category.

From 1 January, individuals--like businesses and SMEs--will be classified as electricity consumers on the basis of their bill for the previous year. These categories, about which ILR said it could not go into more detail at the moment, will set the fixed costs (in euros per year) for all consumers. The electricity supplier will also be able to set a monthly average consumption and thus determine “consumption peaks” on a typical day. From now on, consumers will be charged more for exceeding this average.

How much will this cost? Here again, the ILR has not yet reached a decision, merely stating, through its director Luc Tapella, that “for the majority of consumers, this will have no impact in the first year.”

Suppliers are supposed to place each consumer in the most favourable category, under the supervision of the regulator. .

Let’s say you work all day, pick up the children from school and go home. At that point, perhaps you start by turning on the heating a little, then the oven to start cooking for the whole family, who then turn on the television, computers and lights. Perhaps you take advantage of the time before the meal to run a load of laundry in the washing machine or run the dishwasher--the likelihood of you exceeding the fateful average increases. The new system is designed to make you aware of this electricity consumption and “invite” you, for example, to run the machine at a time when you don’t consume too much electricity, such as at night, to stay under the limit and not pay more.

Or maybe you produce electricity yourself, via solar panels for example, and it’s in your interest to run the same machine, or even charge your car, when the sun is shining and you’re injecting electricity into the grid for the time being.

Since 100% of households have a smart meter and suppliers collect data every quarter of an hour, they have a very precise idea of the consumption of all households, SMEs and other businesses, at every moment of the day and night.

Why change the system, which until now has charged everyone the same fees in the same way? “Because the current system is not reflective of the real costs of using the network,” explained the three ILR managers around the table, Claude Rischette (deputy director in charge of energy), (ILR director) and Claude Hornick (head of the energy department). In other words, if you consume 100 KW today, you pay the same network charges--that famous third of the electricity bill--even though you use it much more than if you consumed 2 KW.

And between the increase in the population and the increase in the use of electricity, operators are going to have to--one day--invest massively in upgrading infrastructures to avoid a “black out” in the country, a “black out” that is not at all topical, Tapella was careful to point out. “We’re not waiting until five minutes to midnight to take action,” he said.

With the emergence of energy communities--around twenty since the start of the year, sharing each other’s surpluses--an exception will be introduced for energy communities whose members are less than 300 metres apart. This makes sense.

For specific economic activities, because they have consumption levels that cannot be linearised, operators and the ILR will have to adapt the system. For example, if a restaurant has a peak between 11am and 3pm and then again between 6pm and midnight, it will be difficult to return to an average. Unless the average is set quite high... which would ruin the appeal of the new system.

The cost of the network is one of the three price components on a bill, along with taxes and the price of electricity, which we have known for a year is also set to rise, with some suggesting increases of up to 30%.

This article was originally published in .

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