Skopje, 29 June 2022 (MIA) – President of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Marko Bislimovski, said Wednesday that the average price of electricity will increase by 7.4 percent for 98.8 percent of households. According to Bislimovski, if the blocks had not been introduced, the price would have increased by 17.74 percent. “Depending on the blocks, during winter 59.9 percent of households will have increased electricity bills by 6.6 percent, while 35.5 percent will have increased bills by 6.6 to 8.8 percent, 3.4 percent of consumers will receive bills increased by 8.8 to 11.2 percent, and only 1.2 percent of consumers will receive bills increased by 11.4 to 99.5 percent. During the summer, also depending on the blocks, 77.2 percent of households will have bills increased by 6.7 percent, while 21.8 percent will have bills increased by 6.7 to 8.8 percent. Only 0.7 percent of consumers will receive bills increased by 8.8 to 11.3 percent, and 0.2 percent of consumers will receive bills increased by 11.4 to 100 percent,” Bislimovski said. He underlined that the blocks apply only for peak electricity hours, and for the off-peak electricity hours, he noted, there are no blocks and the consumption will be paid based on difference. In the bills, added Bislimovski, the citizens will see how much is the price of electricity and how much is the grid, i.e. sum of active energy and grid usage. The ERC president added that energy companies had requested significant tariff increases for their services, but the ERC hasn’t accepted all of their requests and approved much lower percentages. “The costs for electricity procurement of EVN HOME have increased annually by EUR 57.4 million, compared to the planned amount from December 2021, due to the return of many companies and public institutions from the liberalized electricity market to the regulated one, and so because of that, EVN HOME had to make an additional import of electricity in the amount of EUR 33.2 million. By eliminating the crisis situation, EVN HOME has an additional cost for renewable energy sources in the amount of EUR 9.5 million. Additionally, the new price of electricity that ESM delivers to EVN HOME has increased by 17 percent, from EUR 41 per megawatt hour to EUR 48,” Bislimovski said. dk/nn/