Illustrative stock photo (source: Sme)
Electricity prices for households are set to fall by an average of 1 percent in 2016, with gas prices projected to shrink by 3.6 percent, head of the Office for Regulation of Network Industries (ÚRSO) Jozef Holjenčík announced on November 30. The actual annual savings in bills for households will vary from anywhere between €3-50 for electricity and between €1-40 annually for gas, depending on each particular tariff and the extent of the use of electricity and gas, the TASR newswire reported.
Electricity rates have been dropping for three years now, according to Holjenčík, who further stressed that the falls are not, strictly speaking, the result of market competition, even though ÚRSO has laid the groundwork for it and the market now includes a sufficient number of alternative suppliers.
“The drop in prices is de facto produced by ÚRSO’s course of action, as it has had to respond to market developments, as the regulated suppliers did not offer lower prices to consumers despite the drop in market prices,” said Holjenčík as cited by TASR.
Meanwhile, the rate for electricity supplies to small businesses will shrink by 1.1 percent next year. The gas bills for small enterprises are projected to drop by an average of 2.88 percent.
In Slovakia electricity and gas prices of households and small businesses are regulated by ÚRSO.
Holjenčík warned that the end prices for industries are not about to go down, however, as ÚRSO has no control over some fees that make up the end price.
Water prices are set to remain unchanged next year, as no water management company has requested ÚRSO to amend the pricing for 2016.
