At 15-17 cents per kilowatt-hour, the average cost of electricity for households next year is formed – with the data so far – according to the announcements of the majority of suppliers. In practice, prices – without the horizontal subsidies which are abolished on December 31st – are at the level they moved throughout 2023.

This means that for around 1.2 million households (over 40 %) who are beneficiaries of the electricity heating allowance of €45-480 which will be implemented for the first time in the first quarter of 2024, the prices will be lower levels from the current ones.

An important development for a large portion of consumers is, however, PPC’s move last week to proceed with a reduction of almost 40% of the fixed tariff (without fluctuations throughout the duration of the contract), the cost of which has been established since the previous Monday, December 4 to 17.5 cents per kilowatt hour from 28 cents previously. Accordingly, the night tariff stands at 16.6 cents, against 24 cents which was the previous price (30% reduction).

This tariff, which (like all fixed tariffs) will be marked in blue, may be preferred by consumers who wish – regardless of the evolution (up or down) of energy prices in the international and Greek markets – to have a fixed charge, which with the current data is higher than the floating tariffs but not dramatically different from them. Another important difference of fixed, blue tariffs from the rest of the floating ones is that those who sign such contracts will not be able to “break” them for free before their expiry (they will have to pay a “penalty”) while in all the others the move to another supplier or invoice remains free.

With the data so far, the framework for electricity tariffs in 2024 is structured as follows:

From 1-1-2024 there will be four tariff categories:

The fixed tariff, with a blue marking and a fixed supply price (€/kWh) for the entire period of the contract.

The special common tariff, marked green, in which the supplier will announce the billing price by the first day of the month of application, that is, consumers will know the price they will pay every 1st of the month.

The other variable tariffs, marked in yellow, which include tariffs with a variable supply charge (€/kWh), where the price changes, according to the fluctuations of the wholesale electricity market.

Dynamic tariffs, marked in orange, include tariffs whose price changes, based on intraday wholesale electricity market prices. A condition for offering the specific tariffs is the existence of a smart meter.

The discussion recently focused on the “green” tariff that was created at the initiative of the Ministry of Environment and Energy in order to be transferred to this set of consumers from 1.1.2024. It is estimated that around 70% of consumers will be transferred to the “green” tariff as everyone except those with fixed kilowatt-hour contracts and those who will explicitly state to their supplier that they do not want the “green” tariff and choose another from those available on the market.

As the Ministry of the Interior points out, the main benefit for consumers who will choose the green tariff is that they will know in advance, on the 1st day of each month, the billing price of the month and will thus be able to compare the suppliers’ offers and they choose the best one. In addition, a QR code (and link) is inserted in electricity bills and other messages from suppliers (sms and e-mails) with a reference to the publication website of the RAEA price comparison tool, so that consumers have the possibility to verify the price of each month for the special common tariff and to compare with the total of the suppliers’ offered tariffs.