Today, NordREG, a cooperation between Nordic energy regulators, publish a report that describes the customers’ situation in the five Nordic retail markets for electricity. The report shows what offers, prices and problems customers face in each of the markets. National data is presented together with statistics on complaints from customers and the results from the European Commission´s survey Consumer Markets Scoreboard.
Electricity customers in all Nordic countries, except Iceland, have a wide range of contracts and suppliers to choose from and are relatively active. They all have access to independent price comparison tools and have a clear economic incentive to switch supplier or renegotiate contracts with the current supplier.
Few customers complain about the switching process itself. Instead, problems customers experience are typically when they have misunderstood the terms of the contract or there has been an unfair selling process. Many customers contact the national regulators to question if a contractual change is legal or if the supplier has provided them with all the required information before entering into a new contract.
So far, only Denmark has implemented mandatory combined billing, were the supplier bills the customer for both the electricity and network fee in one bill. However, all countries have regulations concerning billing and information required on invoices. Still, when customers were asked how well they understood their bill, the results varied between the Nordic countries.
Retail prices in Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are characterised by a close connection to the underlying common Nordic electricity wholesale market. Different kinds of spot price contracts settled against wholesale markets are the most common and, on average, the cheapest contract types. In the last five years, Customers in Norway and Sweden have experienced more price changes than customers in Finland. At the same time, prices seems to be higher in Finland than, for example, Norway.
For more information, please contact:
Mattias Johansson, Energimarknadsinspektionen, +46 16-16 27 42
Cathrine Hagen, Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat, +47 22 95 95 95
Jori Säntti, Energiavirasto, +358 29 50 50 079
Lukas Lindgreen, Energitilsynet, +45 41 71 43 12
Rakel Jensdóttir, Orkustofnun, +354 569 6000
Facts about NordREG: Since 2005 NordREG has worked towards a harmonised retail market for electricity. Many important steps have been taken. However, the common objective is not yet achieved. The Nordic countries still have five separate Retail markets with many similarities and some differences. In recent years, NordREG has focused on establishing joint recommendations in order to achieve a harmonised Nordic retail market for electricity.