Minister: Universal electricity price could rise or fall in the future
All electricity consumers who are made the offer to switch to the universal service should do so, Minister of Entrepreneurship and IT Kristjan Järvan said on Friday, adding that the price of the universal services could rise or fall in the future.
Do you recommend switching to the universal price for everyone who will receive an offer from their service provider?
For those made the offer, those who have opted for more expensive fixed-price packages or the market price, I sincerely recommend switching to the universal service as I see no plausible reason for the market price of electricity to come down this winter.
When would it make sense to drop the universal service again and how easy will that be?
The possibility will always be there. No contractual penalty is due when dropping the universal service. We have managed risks for the consumer and kept the system as open as possible.
There are dozens of electricity sellers in Estonia and only major players have pledged to offer their customers the universal service. What should people who are paying a higher price and will not see an offer from their current service provider do?
There are two options. Either switch to a service provider that does carry the universal service or terminate the current contract and switch to the basic electricity service the price of which matches the universal service.
Has the price been fixed? Can we be sure it will not be hiked following unexpected circumstances?
It will not be hiked abruptly.
But it could go up?
It could both go up and come down. But it would be a longer process. The main component is the CO2 quota price that could move up or down. But the Competition Authority has signaled that they will not approve a new price before input prices change by at least 5 percent.
Do we know how much this de facto energy benefit could cost Eesti Energia?
It is very difficult to gauge because we don't know what the market price will be, nor the volume of fixed-price packages Eesti Energia could be offering its customers in the future as we're talking about the company giving up profits. We know what those fixed-price energy deals are today – 26 cents per kilowatt-hour, while the universal service will drop that to 15 minus 5 cents (with the seasonal energy benefit – ed.).
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Editor: Marcus Turovski
Source: "Aktuaalne kaamera"