Subsidies electricity bills significantly reduced the cost of kilowatt-hours consumed by households and businesses. However, at the same time that the wholesale price of electricity is on a slowdown path, electricity bills have been significantly burdened by an upward implicit adjustment of the system usage fee and utility bills.

These are the so-called regulated payments, which are indicated in a separate column of the electricity bill form and are common to all suppliers. Thus, part of the relaxations in the so-called competitive part of the bill, which is formed on the market between suppliers and which is subsidized by the state to mitigate the excessive growth of the wholesale market, from September 1, and with greater intensity from November 1, are nibbling an increase in regulated fees.

From September 1 and in pursuance of his decision RAE which was based on the corresponding proposal of his ADMI to restore the annual allowed guaranteed income in 2022, unit fees for all consumption categories (households, small and large businesses) more than doubled compared to 2021. In particular, for high-voltage enterprises (energy-intensive industries), the system fee is from 1963 euros. / megawatt-hour in 2021 adjusted to 3.728 euros/megawatt-hour, for medium-voltage enterprises from 1.384 euros/megawatt-hour to 3.869 euros/megawatt-hour and for households and enterprises connected to the low-voltage network from 6, 35 EUR/MWh to 9.78 EUR/MWh.

For households, the HYCO charge has increased from €6.9/MWh to €17/MWh.

And while the system fee adjustments were largely reasonable and expected due to island interconnection costs implemented by ADMIE, the YKO fee increase that followed from Nov. exempt consumers from the increased prices they pay to cover the exorbitant cost of operating local PPC oil stations on unconnected islands. Tentatively and according to ADMIE, taking into account the relationship of Syros, Paros and Mykonos (2018) and Naxos (2020), YKO should be reduced by 60 million per year. With the addition of Crete, respectively, YKO should be reduced by 380 million in 2022 (the first full year of operation of Crete – Peloponnese).

In other words, YKO should already have been reduced by more than 500 million euros by today. Instead, by decision of Minister of Environment and Energy Kostas Skrekas, HYCO’s fees were adjusted upwards for most consumers and businesses, placing an additional burden on consumers, estimated at around $300 million a year. The reason for the decision was to create a reserve account in case of future energy crises. For example, for households, the YKO charge increased from 6.9 EUR/MWh from 1 November to 17 EUR/MWh.

Meanwhile, the price of electricity on the wholesale market recorded a significant drop of 44% in October (€232.7/MWh) compared to September and 17% compared to October 2021. It decreased for the third month in a row, and demand, which fell in October by 10% monthly.