[lhopki01]

What I often notice when reading articles like this is people aren't aware of how electricity is priced in different countries. When I was in the UK I had one headline figure of price per KWh that covered everything. This seems to apply in a few European countries too. In Canada however I have a price per KWh and then about 7 or so different extra charges on my bill (local access fees, trasmissions charges, rate riders, distribution charges, administrative fees, etc). All the charges seems to be variable but not necessarily exactly variable based on my KWh usage. From what I've seen this seems to be happen in the United States too.

So whenenver I see someone say oh I pay 10c per KWh I don't know if that's just the posted figure or the actual amount they pay per KWh if they took their entire bill and divided it by their usage.

[psmirnov]

I was going to post to say exactly the same thing. I recently moved Ontario, Canada to BaWü Germany. Yes, the kWh price is 3 times higher here, but I can find a contract where I pay about 9 euro a month for delivery, compared to $40 CAD I was paying (after rebates) every month on various fees back in Ontario. Most months I paid more for delivery than my usage back home. It’s nice to have the majority of my energy bill under my control.

Normalizing prices to USD also makes little sense, as I don’t get paid in USD in either country. Normalizing to daily income makes more sense, even though that’s not a perfect measure of affordability (I pay more for electricity but less for internet/cell service, for example). A more interesting measure to me is how many people struggle to pay an average household electricity bill.

That said, I completely agree with other commenters that Germany’s closing of nuclear plants was a big mistake, if not from the energy pricing point of view, then from an environmental impact perspective. I can see a coal burning plant in the far distance from my office window, and I’d much rather that thing was shut down then the nuclear plants.

[laurencerowe]

It’s been a while since I emigrated but my UK bill used to include a daily “standing charge” on top of the per kWh rate.

My bill in the US does split things up between the supplier (who buys the energy) and the infrastructure operator. By US standards it’s not too complex. I definitely miss the EU rule on advertised prices being all inclusive though.

[Symbiote]

It's probably easy to overlook the fixed, standing charge on a UK electricity bill as it's fairly small, around £10/month.

There are a few tariffs without a standing charge, but I think that would be useful mostly for a holiday home, second home etc.

[lumb63]

The other variable in pricing can be time of use. Not all providers do this, but it can be cheaper to use electricity when it is in low demand and opposite when in high demand. I suspect this will become more popular as EVs gain popularity and change usage patterns.

[ThatPlayer]

Around here, prices even change depending on time of use. Peak hours start at 4pm when people start getting off work, and solar production starts going down. My price at peak demand is more than double my off-peak prices.