DESPITE evidence to the contrary, the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) yesterday again denied that Cypriot households pay the highest electrical prices in the European Union.
Eurostat data published this week show that in 2010 Cypriot medium size households had the highest electrical bill among the EU-27 countries. Cypriots paid €0.1597 per kWh (kilowatt hours), compared to the EU-27 year average of €0.1223 per kWh.
The prices, published by local daily Alithia yesterday, represent the before-tax average over the entire year and not for a specific moment in time. The Mail confirmed this with Eurostat’s press office in Luxembourg.
Eurostat states that the electricity prices posted on its website are defined as follows: average national price in Euro per kWh without taxes applicable for the first semester of each year for medium size household consumers. The same method of calculation applies to industrial consumers.
According to the figures for 2010, Ireland was the second most expensive after Cyprus at €0.1589 per kWh.
Danes paid €0.1168, Germans €0.1381, Belgians €0.1549, Norwegians €0.1484, and Austrian consumers €0.1431.
The paper cited these countries in particular precisely to refute the EAC’s claim, only a few days earlier, that the EAC’s rates for household consumers were cheaper than those in Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Italy and Austria. The EAC was commenting specifically about its own rates to consumers without mention of Value Added Tax.
Eurostat had no available data for Malta, also an island and perhaps the most comparable market to Cyprus.
Prices in other countries for 2010 were: Bulgaria €0.0675, Estonia €0.0695, Romania €0.0856 and Greece €0.0975.
As far as industrial rates are concerned, Cyprus again was the most expensive, standing at €0.1483 per kWh, far higher than the EU-27 average of €0.0918 and also the Eurozone average of €0.092. Slovakia trailed at €0.1161, followed by Ireland, Spain and the Czech Republic. Estonia was at the bottom of the rung, at €0.0573 per kWh.
Again, there was no data posted for Malta. But 2009 figures showed that industrial consumers there were charged €0.0675 per kWh, compared to €0.0878 in Cyprus.
But EAC chairman Harris Thrassou yesterday insisted the data was misleading.
First, he said, the Eurostat figures were only a snapshot, taken at a time when crude prices were relatively high and therefore not truly representative. And second, any comparisons were “unfair” because Cyprus has only one energy source for electrical power whereas other countries have several sources.
However, Eurostat explicitly states on its website that its numbers represent the average for the entire year. Moreover, it also clarifies that up until 2007 Eurostat did quote prices based on “the status on 1st January of each year for medium size consumers,” but that this practice has since ceased.
It was not clear whether Thrassou was aware of this updated method of calculation.
“Alithia thinks it’s got a scoop,” the EAC boss said dismissively of the paper’s report.
“The price of electricity is not stable, it fluctuates. The prices cited were taken at a time when crude was high at around US 95 dollars,” he noted.
Thrassou said the price of electricity is calculated via a formula that factors in all the fuel reserves in stock as well as recently placed orders for fresh deliveries.
“We shall soon publish figures proving that we are not the most expensive country,” he challenged. “We are slightly above the EU average.”
On industrial prices, Thrassou said these would soon drop by up to four per cent, following a re-equilibration of the two rates (household and industrial) which took effect as of 1 January.
Thrassou said the EAC has asked the energy regulatory authority for permission to re-equilibrate the rates.
He explained that so far the practice in Cyprus has been for industry to subsidise households, but that this had to stop because of EU directives prohibiting cross-subsidisation.
