Power theft puts freeze on reductions
Consumers to shoulder revenue losses to the tune of 500 mln euros from illegal connections
Grid losses and power thefts in 2021 and 2022 have been ascertained by Greek power grid operator DEDDIE to amount to 500 million euros. The bill was sent to providers, which in turn are passing it on to consumers.
Therefore, while wholesale electricity prices are going down, consumers will see no benefit in April nor the next few months.
The average wholesale market price fell in March to 67.5 euros per megawatt-hour from 73.61 euros/MWh in February and forecasts for April point to a further decline to 60 euros/MWh and probably below these levels, as weather-driven demand declines and the cheap renewable generations of energy strengthen, covering over 50% of the power mix.
The wholesale power price serves as the foundation for retail kilowatt-hour charges, and its ongoing de-escalation is the reason for the lower costs enjoyed by consumers in the first three months of the year following the implementation of the new colored invoice.
However, the rationale was flipped in April. The average price of a kilowatt-hour on green invoices, which concern more than 90% of consumers, jumped by 3% in April to 10.8 cents from 10.5 cents in March, instead of the projected decrease. With the exception of the green invoices of Attica Gas Supply, NRG and Voltera, the providers made increases, not excluding Public Power Corporation (PPC), which added 0.034 cents to its April kilowatt-hour charge above that of March, setting the price for the first 500 kilowatt-hours at 10.861 cents compared to 10.827 cents in March.
For consumption above 500 kilowatt-hours, the PPC charge also fell marginally from 11.907 cents to 11.881 cents. The range of the kilowatt-hour price for all providers ranged between 9.06 and 11.71 cents in April compared to a range in March of between 8.18 and 11.5 cents.
The reductions from the wholesale electricity price did not reach consumers and it appears that the expected reductions in the coming months will not reach them either. They were lost in the electricity's journey from the DEDDIE network to the meter to cover, with a lag of at least two years, the network losses – technical and non-technical power theft, which DEDDIE had not accounted for in its original calculations.