Filenews 29 August 2023 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The rates of increase in the price of electricity over the last three years are shocking and awe-inspiring.
According to official data from the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA), which are included in its report on electricity prices issued last week, the average tariff for household electricity more than doubled from August 2020 to August 2023 (108.8%).
The cost of household electricity is almost double today and compared to December 2015.
In particular, in August 2020, a few months after the first cases of coronavirus in Cyprus, with oil prices internationally going downhill due to restrictions and recession, the average household tariff price was 16.15 cents per kilowatt hour, while this August it is 33.72 cents per kilowatt hour!
Partly comforting is that as of September 2022 there has been – with only two exceptions for an equal number of months – a gradual small drop in household tariffs, which is due to reductions in international prices but also to CERA's decisions regarding the cost of purchasing electricity from renewable energy sources from EAC (reduction to 11 cents per kilowatt hour from more than 20 cents that existed) and the revision of the fuel adjustment formula.
On the other hand, recent increases in the cost of crude oil, which has already begun to be passed on to retail prices of petroleum products in Cyprus and elsewhere, will obviously soon bring electricity in Cyprus back on a path of small increases.
The data published by CERA in its report show the following:
Today's average household tariffs remain at their highest levels for at least a decade.
– The most expensive household electricity in at least the last 10 years was paid in Cyprus in September 2022, at a price of 40.31 cents per kilowatt hour, when the recovery in the international economy had begun, with the lifting of many of the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus.
In short, while in March 2020 (first cases in Cyprus) the household tariff was 22.57 cents per kilowatt hour, global restrictions on economic activity and the great international recession lowered the price of household electricity to 15.88 cents in September 2020.
Since then, however, a crazy spiral of energy product prices has begun, which turned into an unprecedented energy crisis immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2021.
– The skyrocketing purchase price of emission allowances also contributed to the unprecedented increases. For example, while in June 2022 the price was 23 euros for the option, in June 2023 it shot up to 87 euros for the option, according to CERA's data.
– As mentioned above, the ceiling on household electricity tariffs was recorded in September 2022, at 40.31 cents and since then a small gradual decrease has begun, which was briefly interrupted last March and May.
– From May '23 to August '23 there were reductions of about 9.3% in household tariffs (by about 4 cents per kilowatt hour: from 37.19 to 33.72 cents per kilowatt hour).
– The prices recorded do not include the subsidy offered by the state in the previous period. But they do include the cost of purchasing carbon dioxide emissions.
7th most expensive Cyprus in household electricity
Contrary to the impressions recently caused by a report by the Minister of Energy, who may have referred to wholesale prices, the retail price of household electricity in Cyprus, including taxes and charges, is not the most expensive in the EU, but 7th in a row.
According to July 2023 data, published by VaasaETT Ltd, Ireland had in July '23 the most expensive electricity in the EU with 47.12 cents per kilowatt hour, followed by the Czech Republic (40.04), Latvia (38.65), Germany (38.60), Italy (37.72), Denmark (35.55) and Cyprus 7th (35.20).
According to the same source, household electricity in Greece (final consumer) was 25.51 cents per kilowatt hour, on average. The average household electricity charge in EU countries in July was 26.34 cents per kilowatt hour.
