Gas Price Ttf Europe

[Aimon Jardine]

Thisarticle highlights the development of electricity prices both for household and non-household consumers within the European Union (EU). When available, it also includes price data from Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Trkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine.

The price of energy in the EU depends on a range of different supply and demand conditions, including the geopolitical situation, the national energy mix, import diversification, network costs, environmental protection costs, severe weather conditions, or levels of excise and taxation. Note that the prices presented in this article include taxes, levies and VAT for household consumers, but exclude refundable taxes and levies for non-household consumers.

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

Figure 3 shows the proportion of taxes and levies in the overall electricity retail price for household consumers. In the EU, the share of taxes in the second half of 2023 was the least in Luxembourg, where the values were in fact negative (-49.2 %). Negative taxes, reflecting the subsidies and allowances, were also observed in Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Latvia, Portugal and Lithuania. The relative share of taxes was highest in Denmark, making up 48.1 % of the total price. The average share of total taxes and levies at EU level in the second half of 2023 was 21.8 %, an increase of 6.3 percentage points (pp) when compared with the second half of 2022, and an increase of 2.6 percentage points (pp) when compared with the first half 2023, mostly driven by reduction of subsidies and allowances. The VAT in the EU represented 13.7 % of the total price. It ranged from 4.8 % in Malta to 21.3 % in Hungary.

Figure 4 shows the percentage change in electricity prices for household consumers including all taxes and VAT between the second half of 2023 and the second half of 2022. For comparison purposes the national currencies were used. For energy prices, comparing year on year instead of semester on semester is most meaningful to avoid seasonal effects. However, these seasonal effects are less prominent in the recent semesters. Year on year, the total prices increased in 13 of the EU countries, while they decreased in another 13 EU countries (Romania data were not compared, due to different methodology in 2022). The largest increase was observed in the Netherlands (86.3 %), followed by Czechia (81.9 %) and Poland (26.93 %). Energy and supply costs, as well as the reduction of subsidies and allowances drove the increase. Denmark (-39.3 %), Spain (-29.9 %) and Belgium (-15.8 %) were the three EU countries to record the largest decreases.

In Map 1, electricity prices for household consumers in the second half of 2023 are shown in purchasing power standard (PPS), grouping the available countries in six categories, with electricity price categories ranging from above 35 PPS per 100 KWh to below 15 PPS per 100 KWh. The final burden for the consumer depends on their own consumption. Electricity prices based on PPS were highest in Czechia (38.7) and Cyprus (37.9). The lowest electricity prices based on the purchasing power standard were observed in Malta (14.3) and Luxembourg (15.4).

Figure 5 presents the share of transmission and distribution costs for household electricity consumers. Transmission and distribution costs are only reported once a year, at the end of the second semester. Distribution costs account for the largest share by far, when compared with the transmission costs. This is normal for all types of networks including the electricity system.

Transmission network is used for transmitting bulk amounts of energy over long distances. The distribution network is usually the part of the system where the consumers are connected. The distribution network is denser than the transmission network, therefore, its share in the costs is expected to be higher.

Countries with lower population density require a more extensive transmission network to meet their needs. Its costs are higher when compared with the countries with higher population density. Smaller, densely populated countries use mostly their own distribution network.

Figure 8 presents the proportion of non-recoverable taxes and levies on the overall electricity price for non-household consumers. In the second half of 2023, the share of taxes was highest in Poland and Cyprus, where non-recoverable taxes and levies made up 34.9 % and 28.0 % of the total price respectively. The share of taxes for the EU in the second half of 2013 stood at 11.8 %, showing an increase when compared with the second half 2022 (5.6 %), being also in a higher level, compared with the first half of 2023 (10.0 %).

Throughout this article, references to household consumers relate to the medium standard household consumption band with an annual electricity consumption between 2 500 KWh and 5 000 KWh. All figures are consumer retail prices and include taxes, levies and VAT. The full datasets for electricity prices for households consumers are available at:

Throughout this article, references to non-household consumers relate to the medium standard non-household consumption band with an annual consumption of electricity between 500 MWh and 2 000 MWh. In this article, prices correspond to the price of electricity production, its supply, the network costs and includes all non-recoverable taxes and levies. The full datasets for electricity prices for non-households consumers are available at:

In 2016, Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 entered into force. It defines the obligation for the collection and dissemination of electricity prices for household and non-household consumers. Until 2016, the domain of non-household consumers was defined as industrial consumers, but reporting authorities were allowed to include other non-household consumers. Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 changed the definition from industrial to non-household consumers to have a unique methodology for all reporting countries. Until January 2017, the reporting authorities provided their price data for the household sector on a voluntary basis.

Electricity tariffs or price schemes vary from one supplier to another. They may result from negotiated contracts, especially for large non-household consumers. For smaller consumers, they are generally set according to a number of characteristics including the amount of electricity consumed. Most tariffs also include some form of fixed charge. There is, therefore, no single price for electricity. In order to compare prices over time and between EU countries, this article shows information for consumption bands for household consumers and for non-household consumers. Electricity prices for household consumers are divided into five annual consumption bands and, for non-household consumers, into seven different consumption bands.

In the 2nd semester of 2023, the Bulgarian government continues to apply the program to compensate the final non-household customers only for the months October - November. The program envisages a temporary mechanism to support non-household customers through electricity suppliers in the form of a monthly compensation, calculated for each individual customer. The compensations are deducted from the total final price after VAT has been charged on each monthly invoice.The certain specifics in the compensation of non-households customers for the months October - November 2023 are the same as the previous semester:1.The compensation is calculated in the amount of 100 percent of the difference between the real average monthly exchange price of the "day-ahead" segment of "Bulgarian Independent Energy Exchange"EAD, for the relevant month, and the base price of BGN 200/MWh for the period from September 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. 2.For customers with prices below the base price of BGN 200/MWh, the compensation is not applied.3.To customers with a price exceeding the base price by an amount smaller than the amount of the compensation calculated according to p.1, compensation is paid in a reduced amount, so that the resulting price for the customer after compensation is not lower than 200.The way of reporting of these compensations for the semester is fully in accordance with the latest instructions of Eurostat as follows: they are deducted in the 2nd level Electricity prices, excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and are also recalculated so that the difference between 3rd level prices and 2nd level prices is only 20% VAT.

There are slight changes on measures taken the previous year: Since February 2023, the evolution of prices of gas and electricity including taxes is capped at 15% for individual with regulated prices. In 2023, French state mitigates the electricity bill for small and medium-sized companies which do not benefit from regulated tariffs with subsidies up to two millions euros. These subsidies are limited in volume and price.

The Italian Government has implemented extraordinary and temporary measures to contain the exceptional increases in energy prices with the allocation of resources from the State Budget. More precisely, the Government has adopted various measures starting from the second half of 2021, which were then continued and, in some cases, strengthened during 2022 and 2023.It was therefore possible to reduce or to set to zero the price components aimed to cover the general system charges in the electricity sector (ASOS and ARIM tariffs) until March 2023 and in the natural gas sector (RE, GS e UG3 tariffs) for household users and non-household users until December.Furthermore, starting from the year 2023, the nuclear charges (due to the financing of the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and the financing of territorial compensation measures) hitherto covered with part of the ARIM tariff are no longer collected by electricity suppliers as financed by the state budget. For 2023, the financing has been established at 400 million euros, a value that will be updated annually as needed.Gas: The Government temporarily reduced the VAT rate applicable to the supply of gas for civil and industrial uses to 5%, in the invoices issued for consumption of the fourth quarter of 2021. This reduction was then further extended to cover consumption until December 2023 (see details in the table 1). Starting from January 2024, the VAT rate applied to gas consumption has come back under usual conditions:10% for annual consumption up to 480 m3, and 22% over this threshold for household users; 10% for non-household users. Starting from the third quarter of 2022 to the second quarter of 2023, the Government has also taken a significant measure in favor of customers with consumption of up to 5,000 m3/year consisting of a large discount (about 30 eurocent per cubic meter), which actually has produced a reduction in the total price. On a formal level, since this discount was applied through a negative component classified among general system charges, it made the total of the charges themselves no longer equal to zero, but negative, for the aforementioned customers (up to 5,000 m3/year).Finally, the Government adopted some measures which, while not having a direct impact on energy prices, help consumers to alleviate the higher cost of energy products. These measures consist in expanding the number of beneficiaries of energy bonuses and in increasing the value of these bonuses for household consumers in poor economic conditions and in granting a tax credit to non-domestic consumers for the purchase of electricity and natural gas.

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