In January, the price of electricity on the regulated market increased by 3.7%

The price of electricity on the regulated market in January will rise by 3.7% compared to December, higher than the ERSE – Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos forecast for October, the statement said.

Thus, according to the transitional tariffs for sales to end consumers, for those “who remain on the regulated market (which is 6.3% of total consumption and 936 thousand customers, which corresponds to the end of October 2023) or who, being on the market freely , chose a similar rate,” the difference between December 2023 and January 2024 reaches 3.7%.

In terms of the average annual change in transition tariffs sold to end-customers on low normal voltage (LVN) networks, this is 2.9%, and “these increases are in line with the inflation forecast for 2024, representing zero change in real terms.” “, he pointed out.

“This tariff increase, higher than that announced in October, is due to a larger difference in the cost of Product Reward Guarantee (PRG) than originally anticipated,” he explained, pointing out that “the difference in PRG cost depends on the difference between the guaranteed prices production and wholesale energy prices, the decline in wholesale energy prices since October means that the PRG cost differential values ​​are higher than those provided for in the tariff proposal submitted on 16 October. “.

ERSE presented modeling to illustrate the impact of average regulated market growth of 3.7% between December 2023 and January 2024 on the most significant type of customer.

Thus, a couple without children with a power of 3.45 kVA and a consumption of 1900 kWh/year will pay 1.05 euros more in January than in December.

For a couple with two children (power 6.9 kVA, consumption 5000 kWh/year) the increase will be 3.27 euros.

Regarding network access tariffs, ERSE noted that “the price level in 2024 will be lower than in 2020 and 2021, the pre-crisis years when all network access tariffs were positive.”

However, “the increase in the grid access tariff in 2024 is essentially due to the fact that grid access tariffs in 2023 were negative as the common economy interest cost (CIEG) had to be returned to consumers, which significantly benefited the National Grid ( SEN)”.

According to ERSE, since October 2023, in particular after the presentation of the tariff proposal, there has been a “decline in electricity prices in the wholesale markets, which became more pronounced in November. The result has been a worsening of electricity price variances in wholesale markets.” the windfall for SEN in 2023, which was already determined in the tariff proposal presented in October, amounts to an additional €201 million, and this situation justifies a change in the tariff difference between the proposal and the decision now taken.”

According to ERSE, “ensuring the economic sustainability of SEN justified ERSE’s option to maintain the debt amount announced in the October proposal, despite the deterioration of the above-mentioned 2023 variance of approximately €201 million that has occurred since that date.”

Thus, “and in accordance with what was already announced in October, in order to ensure tariff stability in 2024, ERSE applied the intertemporal transfer of CIEG in accordance with the statutory and regulatory tariff principles”, and “this circumstance increased the value of the tariff debt by the amount 1.717 million euros, and its value at the end of 2024 will be 1.995 million euros.”