A new surprise item may appear in the electricity transfer bill next year

To the electricity bill a new billing batch, power charge or power tariff may appear within the next year. This is not a completely new thing: a few electricity companies already charge it for some of their consumer customers.

However, experts predict that the use of power payment will become more common. It is affected by the update of the Electricity Market Act, but above all by the upheaval of the electricity system.

HS found out what the power charge means, what it aims for and who has to pay it. However, there are no clear-cut answers.

The power fee is, first of all, part of the customer’s electricity transfer fee. The idea of ​​the fee is that the more the customer puts a strain on the electricity transmission network, the more he pays for using the network.

Power charge there are many calculation methods. It can work, for example, so that the network company looks at the three hours of the highest electricity output of the month and calculates their average output.

If this average power exceeds a certain power limit, for example eight kilowatts, the customer pays for the transmission of electricity in the following month by the power fee more, i.e. 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour more. This type of calculation method has been outlined, for example, by the Energy Agency.

On the other hand, Helen of the city of Helsinki calculates the power fee in a completely different way. Helen is already charging the power fee to those consumer customers who choose the so-called time shift in the transmission contract, i.e. the transmission price is cheaper at night than during the day.

Time shifting is common in electrically heated detached houses. The price per kilowatt-hour of electricity transmission for time transfer customers is clearly lower than for general electricity. At night, the transfer also costs only about half of the day’s price.

Power charge is determined by the average of the third highest hourly output of the month at Helen. Only 80 percent of the nighttime power is taken into account in the calculation.

So there is no threshold power, but the power fee is always 1.61 euros per kilowatt. If the average power of the third highest hour has been, say, 10 kilowatts and during the day, the power fee for this month would be 16.1 euros.

Ten kilowatts in an electrically heated house is easily broken in winter, when the electric heater heats up and the heating is on at the same time. Electric cars, on the other hand, are often charged with a home charger with a power of more than ten kilowatts.

Why is such a new and perhaps somewhat difficult to understand item coming to the electricity bill? Is it just another way for transfer companies to finance the customer?

Tampere University electrical engineering professor Pertti Järventautan’s background according to the reason for the power charge is largely the change in the electricity system, and the need to bill customers according to the actual costs they cause.

When a lot of wind and solar production, which varies according to the weather, has entered the system, the price of electrical energy varies greatly. At the same time, many things, such as cars or even district heating, have started to run on electricity.

An increasing number of consumption sites also regulate the use of electricity according to the price.

Se means that when the stock market price of electricity is low, chargers for electric cars, electric boilers and chargers for large energy storages turn on at the same time. It is good for the balance of electricity production and consumption.

But in the electricity grid, this timing of consumption can result in a very high power peak. And the capacity of the network must be sized according to that power peak. It may require new transformers, wires and entire substations.

“The purpose of the power charge is to encourage people to think about their own use of electricity also from the point of view of the electricity grid. The fee is so small that it does not remove the incentive to schedule the use of electricity according to the electricity exchange price, but it brings a new factor into the equation,” says Järventausta.

Lake background according to the introduction of the power charge, everyone ultimately benefits. If electricity companies have to invest in electricity networks due to an increase in peak power, the cost is always paid by the customer.

It makes sense to avoid consumption spikes, i.e. households turn off other appliances, for example, when the electric sauna is warm or the car is being charged at high power.

“80 percent of the network company’s costs are fixed costs. In other words, maintaining the transmission connection costs almost the same, regardless of how much electricity the customer uses. The purpose of the performance fee is to partially replace the fixed basic fee included in the transfer price and make it more encouraging,” says Järventausta.

Helen’s in addition, a few other electricity companies already use power payment for at least some of their consumer customers. Larger business customers already have it in general use anyway.

The reform of the Electricity Market Act, which is under consideration by the parliament, creates common grounds for the determination of the power fee, about which the Energy Agency will provide more detailed instructions later.

In the energy sector, the general perception seems to be that a large part of the companies will introduce power payment for consumer customers as well, as long as the regulation is fixed. This may happen already during the next year.

Lake background according to this, it is impossible to say who will end up paying more or less than the current rate due to the power charge. There is already so much variation in electricity transmission pricing, different daily and seasonal pricing.

The end result also depends on the consumer’s ability to regulate their consumption.

Different network companies emphasize fixed basic fees and consumption-based fees in very different ways.

The electricity bill consists of two parts.

A customer of electricity can buy from any company operating in Finland.

Instead, the transmission of electricity must be purchased from the network company in whose area the point of consumption is located. The electricity transfer bill usually has a basic fee and a fee based on consumption per kilowatt hour.

The revenues of network companies operating as monopolies are regulated by the Energy Agency.