For small businesses that are unable to shift operations to times of low electricity demand – usually nights and weekends – the news that electricity charges will be suspended will come as a relief. At the same time, Magnus Demervall, CEO of Företagarna, points out the ambiguities.
“This is a long-awaited and necessary announcement. However, many electricity grid operators have already introduced electricity tariffs, which is placing a great burden on companies that are already struggling with high electricity prices. What is crucial now is that these electricity tariffs are eliminated so that today’s announcement does not become just a paper product,” he wrote in a comment.
According to Demervall “15,000 entrepreneurs risk having to lay off staff in the next twelve months to cover energy costs,” partly due to the high energy tax in Sweden.
However, Ebba Busch does not provide any clear information about what applies to impact fees that have already been introduced.
According to the energy market regulator, they adhere to the applicable rules and have not taken action against an energy company’s tariffs.
Ellevio, one of the largest electricity grid companies The company that introduced electricity tariffs writes to DN that it is waiting for further information from the Energy Market Inspectorate in response to the question of what the company plans to do with customers who already have electricity tariffs.
The company also elaborates on the description of putting on shoes and estimates that for half of customers it made no difference. In the other half the costs were increased and in the other half the costs were reduced.
Eon Energidistribution has already done this The planned introduction of electricity tariffs has been paused, and this pause applies, says customer and marketing manager Gustav Wengren.
– Regardless of which model is used in the future, it is important that it is understandable for customers and is perceived as useful.
According to Wengren, it could be a uniform fee that applies equally throughout Sweden for the corresponding electricity network subscription.
The purpose of effect fees is to enable Households and companies should be asked to shift their electricity consumption to the night in order to reduce network overload and the need for expansion.
But as DN described, the system is criticized for being complicated, giving double signals, making the green transition more difficult and, in some cases, leading to very high fees. The 170 electricity network operators were largely given free rein to design their own solution, which meant that it looked very different depending on where they lived in the country, which was perceived as unfair.
The government now seems to want this This should be done by opening up to more general regulations in the new tasks of the energy market supervision and it should also be possible to adapt electricity tariffs more individually to the size of the customer and the demand for electricity.
The industry organization Energiföretagen criticizes the box crossing.
“Our members have invested significant resources in responding to the requirements of the Energy Market Inspection, not least in relation to the design of the tariff, as well as extensive information efforts to their customers about what the change means.” writes Tomas Malmström, responsible for electricity grid issues.
By this he means Busch’s about-face “Means completely new framework conditions for companies.”
“Continuous communication from the energy market supervisory authority is now required so that companies can in turn inform and advise their customers.”
The Green Party’s energy policy spokesman, Linus Lakso, considers Busch’s announcement to be “a kind of fraud” because the network operators are allowed to increase their electricity network fees overall.
– It gives the impression that the electricity network fees will fall, but will continue to rise; that has nothing to do with the electricity fee. What you should have is a voluntary option, a carrot, to reduce consumption if necessary and receive compensation for it, he says.
The Social Democrats point out the question marks regarding electricity tariffs that have already been introduced and whether the electricity network operators should continue to charge them.
“We demand that smaller households be completely excluded,” writes Fredrik Olovsson in a comment.
