Through the electricity bills, the consumers reimburse the full cost of providing electricity to them, including the production and supply of electricity (supply/consumption charge), as well as the regulated charges which encompass, among others, the charges for the transmission and distribution of electricity to their property (charges for the Electricity Transmission System and the Electricity Distribution Network). The Distribution Network and the Transmission System fees are collected by the suppliers and are attributed to the Distribution Network and Network System Operator respectively, for the proper operation, maintenance and expansion of the Distribution Network and Transmission System.

This obligation has always been in force, but the distinct appearance of the abovementioned charges on the bills was imposed after 2011 for reasons of transparency and proper information of consumers, in accordance with the EU Directives and their implementation in Greece with Laws 2773/1999 (Gazette A’ 286/22.12.1999, 3426/2005 (Gazette A’ 309/22.12.2005) and 4001/2011 (Gazette A’ 179/22.08.2011) as they apply. In any case, the regulated fees are legal and based on the legislation, the relevant Ministerial Decisions, as well as RAE’s Decisions. The level of the regulated charges depends on the power installed and the electricity consumption of the respective consumer and they are divided in the following three categories:

1. The fees related to the use of the National Transmission System and the Electricity Distribution Network and distributed amongst all consumers, which are attributed to the System and Network Operators to maintain and expand them. More specifically, the fees for the Transmission System covers the cost of operation, maintenance, and development of the Transmission Network (Transmission System) which transfers electricity via High Voltage pylons from the production plants to the substations of the urban areas, so that afterwards the electricity through the Distribution Network under Medium and Low Voltage to reach the final consumers of the country. This fee is divided into a fixed charge (depending on the level of the power of the agreed supply point) and a variable charge (depending on the level of the consumption). The fees for the Distribution Network covers the operating, maintenance, and development cost of the Medium and Low Voltage Distribution Network. It is divided into a fixed charge (depending on the level of the power of the agreed supply point) and a variable charge (depending on the level of the consumption). The customers under agricultural tariffs and the customers included in the Night Consumption tariffs Γ1N, Γ23 and Γ23B are exempted from the above charges. The fees for the Use of the Transmission and Distribution Networks are incurred in accordance with RAE’s Decisions issued per calendar year. The current fees (for household consumers) for the use of the electricity transmission system applicable since 1 April 2020 are calculated based on RAE’s Decision No. 3/2020 (Gazette B’ 229/2020), whereas the current fees for the use of the electricity distribution network applicable since 1 April 2020 are based on RAE’s Decision No. 2/2020 (Gazette B ‘232/2020).

1. b) The charges for the Public Service Obligations (PSOs) which are collected by Suppliers, to supply electricity:

1) to the inhabitants of the non-interconnected islands at the same price with the inhabitants of the mainland, even though the cost of electricity production on the islands is much higher,

2) to large families and vulnerable consumers included in the Social Residential Tariff (long-term unemployed, people with disabilities, etc.), at prices significantly reduced compared to the current tariffs.

The PSOs charges apply to the consumer regardless of the electricity supplier. From the above PSOS charges, according to article 4 of Law 4296/2014 (Gazette A’ 214/02.10.2014), the beneficiaries of the tariffs for Large Families and Social Residential Tariff for their full consumption, and the beneficiaries of the Solidarity Services Tariff  for their four-month electricity consumption up to 10,000 kWh  are exempted.

Regarding the PSOs charges, the following should be also highlighted:

• The Law 2773/1999 provided for the introduction of the Public Service Obligations (PSOs) and authorized the Minister of Energy to issue implementing Decisions for the regulation of all relevant issues, which remained in force until 2011.
• Subsequently, pursuant to articles 55 and 56 of Law 4001/2011 concerning the Public Service Obligations, RAE issued Decision No. 1527/2011 which determined the PSOs charges, per consumers category for 2012.
• Furthermore, the Greek State with article 36 of Law 4067/2012, concerning the provision of PSOs in the electricity sector, determined:

– the electricity consumer as directly liable for the payment of PSOs charges, and

– the unit PSOs charges, per customers category, for the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and onwards, with which the relevant cost is shared.

• Finally, pursuant to article 55 of Law 4508/2017, amending the relevant provisions of Law 4067/2012, the Greek State decided the following:

– the PSOs charges are attributed to the users of each electricity supply point, payable at the electricity suppliers as a separate charge included in the bill, for the consumeption calculated by the Distribution Network operator, as well as to the self-supplied customers.

– the unit PSOs  charges, per customers category, for the year 2018 and onwards, with which the total cost of the PSOs obligations is shared.

The level of the PSOs charges depend on the electricity consumption of your facility. Specifically, until 31.12.2017 the following charges were in force for the household consumers:

According to the provisions of Article 36 of Law 4067/2012, until 31.12.2017 the inclusion of household consumers in PSOs charging scales was based on the four-month electricity consumption, and each consumer was charged for the entire amount of energy consumed in the four-months period with the corresponding unit charge.

To this end, within the framework of its responsibilities, RAE examined the methodology based on which the PSOs were charged to consumers, aiming to rationalize their pricing. In this regard, RAE submitted Opinion No. 10/2017 (07.08.2017) to the Minister of Energy, with which it expressed its proposals for the amendment of the relevant regulatory framework about PSOs charges, and Opinion 16/2018, with which it made a few additional corrections regarding the charges for the nighttime household consumption.

Following the above, the provisions of Article 36 of Law 4067/2012, as in force, explicitly stipulate that “in case the four-month energy consumption exceeds the consumption thresholds of a certain scale in the LV household categories, only the incremental consumption is charged based on the next scale”.

Specifically, from 03.12.2019 and onwards, for the household consumers the following apply:

In this way, the consumer’s charge is proportional to its actual consumption and not to the single price of the scale to which the total consumption falls. The above amendments also include a change in the charge for nighttime consumption to household customers, which is now treated in the same way as day consumption, although with a separate fee.

31. c) The RES Levy (ETMEAR) with which all electricity consumers contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, through the production of electricity from renewable sources (RES) and high efficiency cogeneration of electricity and heat. The RES Levy has been determined with Article 40 of Law 2773/99 (as Special RES Fee) and article 143 of Law 4001/11, as in force. The current RES Levy charges per customer category, applicable since 1 January 2019, are calculated based on Ministerial Decision No. YPEN/GDE/76979/4917 (Gazette B’ 3373/31.08.2019).

The Law 4336/2015 (Gazette A’ 94/14.8.2015) amended the regulatory framework in the retail gas market, unbundling the regulated monopolistic distribution activity from the liberalized competitive supply activity, to fully liberalize the gas supply, and all consumers, including household consumers, to have become eligible by 1.1.2018. 

In this context, from 1.1.2017 the three Companies that had been active in the retail market and supplied household consumers with natural gas, i.e. EPA Attica, EPA Thessaloniki and EPA Thessaly, which until then had a single license for the supply and distribution of natural gas, proceeded to a functional and legal unbundling of the distribution activities from the supply activities, with the establishment of new Gas Supply and Distribution Companies.

Following the above, the tariffs charged by the new Gas Supply Companies to their customers were separated from the regulated tariffs for the transmission and distribution of the natural gas.  

For reasons of transparency and proper information of the consumers, since 1.1.2017 the Gas Supply Companies have been required to indicate separately in the bills the supply, distribution, and transmission charges to non-eligible customers, as well as to announce the applicable tariffs per month and per category of final consumers.

It needs to be highlighted that the transmission and distribution charges, collected by the Supplier and attributed to the Distribution Network Operator serving the respective geographical area (and accordingly to the Transmission System Operator), in order to be used for the effective functioning, the maintenance and the expansion of the Distribution Network (and respectively the Transmission System), has always applied, as these charges were an integral part of the natural gas unit price.

Distribution Network Tariffs

The regulated tariffs for the Distribution Network of the Attica region, based on RAE Decision No. 1428/2020 (Gazette B’ 4925/09.11.2020), are provided per customers category for 2020, as follows:

The regulated tariffs for the Distribution Network of the Thessaloniki region, based on RAE Decision No. 1429/2020 (Gazette B’ 4882/04.11.2020), are provided per customers category for 2020, as follows:

The regulated tariffs for the Distribution Network of the Thessaly region, based on RAE Decision no. 1429/2020 (Gazette B’ 4882/04.11.2020), are provided per customers category for 2020, as follows:

The regulated tariffs for the Distribution Network of the rest of Greece, based on RAE Decision No. 1430/2020 (Gazette B’ 5072/17.11.2020), are provided per network and per category of customers, as follows:

It should be clarified that the fixed capacity charge is calculated according to the capacity factor and the capacity of the installed meter as stated in the Connection Contract.

Transmission System Tariffs

The (proportional) charge for the usage of the Natural Gas Transmission System is based on RAE Decision No. 349/2016 (Gazette Β’ 3235/7.10.2016) entitled “Amendment of the provisions of the Revised Tariff Regulation of the National Natural Gas System Operator (DESFA S.A.)” (Gazette Β’ 3181/4.10.2016) and RAE Decision No. 352/2016 entitled “Approval of the usage tariffs for the National Natural Gas System” (Gazette B’ 3513/1.11.2016). It is calculated in accordance with the active per month long-term and short-term capacity contracts that each Supplier has concluded with the National Natural Gas System Operator, and thus it varies per month.