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Paying the price of high electricity bills

THIS WEEK’S official confirmation that electricity in Cyprus is the most expensive in the EU has caused widespread anger, particularly among consumers for whom electricity has been their only source of heating during an unusually cold, wet winter.

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” says a 33-year-old bachelor. “I simply don’t understand how I’ve ended up paying €400 for a one-bedroom apartment with a standard consumption of electricity,” Emilios Hadjioannou said.

“My bill for the last two months was €700. How are we supposed to pay for that within a month when our wage is only marginally over that?” asked Kyriacos Neoptolemou, a father of two, one of many whose heating system is electric.

Eurostat revealed earlier this week that in 2011, consumers in Cyprus were charged with an average electricity price of 0.1731 euros per kilowatt-hour (€/kWh) - the highest in the European Union - and this was before the 6.96 per cent levy added to bills to counter the effects of last July’s Mari explosion.

Meanwhile, with wages frozen in most professions in the public and private sectors, a high unemployment rate - over 9 per cent - and rising fuel prices, electricity bills have taken up an ever larger proportion of monthly incomes.

“These are desperate times for many people, they all gather round a single heater in one room,” said Loucas Aristodemou of the Cyprus Consumer’s Union.

Paraskevas Samaras of the Pancyprian Organisation of Large Families said that some large families who were unable to pay their bills had to move in with relatives after the EAC cut their electricity.

The high prices are partly due to several levies introduced for helping the EAC cover costs of lower rates for vulnerable households, European Union penalties on CO2 emissions and operational costs after the Mari explosion. 

The explosion last July, which caused the death of 13 people and essentially destroyed the island’s main power station, forced the EAC to use old and less efficient generators. 

The 6.96 per cent levy has been met with widespread disillusionment, while an additional 1.5 per cent price increase introduced last January - as part of a three phase increase agreed in 2009 - has not gone down well either.

 High prices have also been viewed as a result of the lack of competition in the energy sector.

“This is pure extortion by a corrupt and inefficient monopoly,” said Alexandros Stylianou in reference to the EAC.

“Despite turning off all the lights in the apartment for as long as possible and using heating at a minimum, I’m still dreading the thought of that blue EAC bill envelope,” 24-year-old Antis Neophytou said.

Neophytou said that they dressed in several layers and used more blankets to sleep at night.

“We’re in cost limitation mode,” the 24-year-old said. 

Many consumers said they have become extremely cautious of their electricity consumption.

Angela Venezou said that she dared not set her central heating above the low-setting, but conceded that with three children, there was only so much cutting down of electricity consumption she could do. 

“I run after my kids, turning off lights around the house, and while I laugh about it now, it’s going to be tough when it’s time to pay the bill,” Venezou said.

Venezou said she switched to using the fireplace for heating her house. 

Jamie Angelidou, a young mother of two said her latest bill was €887, which forced her to undergo the “embarrassment of asking family for money”.

Angelidou said her latest bill has made her rethink her lifestyle and cut down on her consumption, “if not for the environment then at least for my pocket.”

“No more dishwashers, no more vacuum cleaning and no more sleeping with the TV on,” Angelidou said. 

John Psaltis, a bachelor, said that he had adopted a very strict attitude towards keeping his electricity consumption up to tabs.

“I’ve unplugged all appliances, I don’t leave anything on stand-by and the only thing I leave operating once I leave the house is the fridge,” Psaltis said.

With architects in the past few years encouraging people to install under-floor heating - which in many cases is powered solely by electricity - some consumers have experienced some freak electricity bills; possibly due to a misuse of the system.

Anita Loizou, the sole resident of a renovated house in the old walled city of Nicosia, said that after an outlandish electricity bill, she did not trust herself to use her heating system.

“My bill for the past two months was €900, and because I’m still not sure how to use my under-floor heating, I have stopped using it completely,” Loizou said.

Instead, she has bought two gas-fired heaters because “they cost €13 each, will last me around ten days and it’s easier for me to keep track of where the money is being spent on heating,” she added.

“With electricity-run under-floor heating one pays exactly what one consumes, so people need to be extremely careful that they use it properly,” architect Savvas Christofi said.

The system is advertised as being over 30 per cent more efficient than a central heating with radiators but its protracted response time - once turned off it takes 48 to re-heat a medium sized house - has some people worried.

Although EAC spokesman Costas Gavrielides ruled out the possibility of the EAC allowing consumers to pay their bills in instalments, he said there is a more practical system of payment in place.

“We have a system where the annual total paid in bills by a household is used as an estimate for the following year and divided into twelve equal fixed payments,” he said. 

Gavrielides said that this made household expenditure planning easier, while the financial burden of certain electricity consumption intensive months - summer and winter months - is spread out throughout the year.

“At the end of each year, readjustments are made accordingly and a new estimate is calculated,” Gavrielides said.

 He conceded that the system had not been picked up by the wider public, and stopped short of attributing any responsibility of the high prices to the EAC.

 But Aristodemou from the Consumers’ Union has little doubt where the responsibility lies.

“The monopolistic nature of the EAC, with the clear support of vote-hungry political parties have, in terms of quality of life, sent us back to the sixties,” he said.