Czechs paid sixth-highest electricity price in EU, while gas was cheaper

Czech households paid the sixth-highest electricity prices in the EU in the second half of last year, while domestic natural gas prices were below the EU average. Czechia was also among the countries where both electricity and gas prices fell year on year. This trend is expected to continue this year. This follows from new Eurostat statistics highlighted by the Czech Energy Association.

When comparing billed prices, Czechia had above-average expensive electricity in the EU last year. Ireland had the highest household electricity prices last year. Despite its higher prices, Czechia was among the ten EU countries where electricity prices fell year on year, by more than five percent.

"Looking at wholesale electricity prices on the exchange over the past year, Czechia is among the cheaper countries in Central and Eastern Europe, although it is still significantly more expensive than countries such as Spain, Portugal and France, or by a few euros more expensive than Germany," said Bohuslav Čížek, director for legislation at the Czech Energy Association.

"However, the final price is influenced by a number of other factors on both the supply and demand sides, and unfortunately the Czech Republic ranks near the top in a number of categories in terms of the final price level. This confirms that investment and transformation measures must continue," he said.

Czechia's position is somewhat more favourable in the case of gas, according to the statistics. Domestic prices were below the EU average last year. They also fell by ten percent in the second half of the year, the largest decline in the EU. Households in Sweden paid the highest prices.

Josef Kotrba, executive director of the Czech Energy Association, noted that the price decline continued at the start of this year, helped by the full transfer of charges for supported energy sources (POZE) to the state. "It is currently becoming apparent that rising energy commodity prices on global markets in connection with the Middle East crisis have so far been reflected in domestic household electricity and gas prices only to a limited extent," Kotrba added.

According to the association, the Czech Republic's position in the statistics is due to several factors, ranging from the energy mix and conditions in Czechia, through the approach of Czech customers and their willingness to change supplier, to the setup of the system of regulated components of electricity prices and network costs.

Eurostat's statistics are based on actually billed energy prices. Jiří Gavor, chairman of the Czech Energy Association's trade section, said that when comparing current market offers from suppliers, Czechia would move closer to the EU average. "And if we choose the very popular dual-tariff heating supply in Czechia as the typical representative, which is favoured over the standard D02 tariff (lighting, cooking) under the current tariff system, then we already rank among the cheaper EU countries," Gavor added.

According to Michal Macenauer, strategy director at consultancy EGU, Czechia therefore fares worse in comparisons of energy commodity prices, especially electricity for small consumers, than the actual state of the Czech energy sector would suggest.

"For a long time, this has been due to the specifics of tariffs and also the presence of charges for the operation of renewable energy sources, especially photovoltaic plants installed between 2008 and 2009. It is also true that the prices customers pay are higher than they could be, meaning they are higher than list or acquisition prices," Macenauer said.

According to him, customers can often achieve lower costs. "But for some customers, it is not worth the effort, which shows how overstated the media portrayal of the problem of high prices, especially electricity prices for small consumers, is," he said. For large consumers, however, it is an incomparably more significant problem, often by an order of magnitude.