Liberalised electricity market to offer little choice for households
12.04.2012, 12:10Starting from 2013, household consumers in Estonia would be able to choose mainly between two suppliers – Eesti Energia and Latvenergo – because other competitors are going after only commercial users, writes Eesti Päevaleht.
What is clear is that, starting from January 2013, Estonian households will be paying as much for their electricity as their neighbours Finns, or about a third more than they did at present.
Overall, electricity bills for households are likely to go up between 10 and 20 percent because two-thirds of the bills are network fees (36 percent), state duties (21 percent) and renewable energy fee (10 percent).
Because so far only two companies – Estonian state-owned utility Eesti Energia and Latvian state-owned company Latvenero – have expressed their intention to operate on the household market, the choice for households to choose between different suppliers will remain extremely limited.
It is estimated that about 7 percent of customers of Eesti Energia who have about 60,000 contracts could be looking for a new supplier.
Such an estimation is based on the market situation 15 years ago when Scandinavian countries liberalised their electricity market.