CYPRIOT households paid the highest average electricity prices in the whole of the European Union (EU27) last year and the second highest in 2010, according to Eurostat results.
In the rankings for electricity prices within the EU, Cyprus has consistently ranked within the top three since 2007 – bar 2009 when it ranked seventh – while it only once registered an average price below the EU27 average, in 2005.
The average electricity price paid by medium-sized households in Cyprus for 2011 was 0.1731 Euros per kilowatt-hour (€/kWh), while the EU27 average price for the year was €0.1275 /kWh.
Both the UK and Ireland notched up average prices over the EU27 average, with €0.1365 /kWh and €0.1584 /kWh respectively.
Bulgarian households in 2011 paid the lowest average price for electricity within the EU with €0.0688 /kWh, just over a third of what Cypriot households paid for the same year.
In 2010, even prior to the Mari blast last July which incapacitated the island’s main power station at Vassilikos, Cypriot households paid the second highest average price with €0.1597 /kWh, second only to Malta (€0.1615 /kWh) and way ahead of the EU27 average of €0.1217 /kWh.
In the category of medium-sized industries, Cyprus’ blushes are only spared by Malta, who tops the list with an average electricity charge of €0.1800 /kWh.
Cyprus is ranked second, with an average charge of €0.1605 /kWh, while the EU27 average is €0.0936 /kWh.
The island’s high prices consist of several charges including VAT – which is set to increase from 15 per cent to 17 per cent in March –, a charge for renewable energy resources, a levy set to compensate the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) for its public sector obligations and costs concerning vulnerable groups of society and a levy on cost recovery for greenhouse effects.
An additional 6.96 per cent charge on the price has also been placed due to the Mari explosion in July.
The explosion, which took the life of 13 people and effectively knocked the island’s main power station off the grid, forced the EAC to use its old and less efficient generators, with the costs being covered by a hike in the price of electricity.
The island’s performance in generating electricity from renewable sources and opening its market to greater competition is also abysmal compared to its EU counterparts.
In 2009, only 0.07 per cent of the island’s gross electricity consumption was covered by renewable sources, a record which only beats Malta’s percentage of zero.
Wind farms set up during the past two years in Paphos and Limassol are expected to improve the performance.
Concerning the electricity market’s openness, Cyprus and Malta’s electricity state authorities – and sole electricity generators – own 100 per cent of the market share, while Croatia and Estonia and Latvia’s largest generators follow with a market share of over 88 per cent. The figures suggest that the bigger the monopoly the higher the prices.
