Czechs had the most expensive electricity in the EU last year. At least according to Eurostat statistics

Czechs were once again among the winners of an unflattering European statistic. Although the Czech Republic is an exporter of electricity, Czech households paid almost the most for electricity in Europe. Eurostat statistics compared electricity prices from the second half of 2023 with the second half of 2022. In this comparison, Czechs paid 83% more during the year (increase to 31.51 euros per kilowatt hour), only the Dutch were worse off in this regard with an 86% increase in electricity prices (increase to 25.15 euros per kilowatt hour). When using the purchasing power standard metric, the Czech Republic is even in first place in the EU.

With a nominal price of 31.51 euros per kilowatt hour, the Czech Republic was just above the EU average of 28.32 euros. Nominally, the price of electricity within the entire EU therefore held the Czech Republic in seventh place, the Germans had the most expensive electricity with 40.2 euros. The Netherlands, which even outpaced the rise in electricity prices, is far below the Czech Republic in the peloton of countries with 25.15 euros per kilowatt hour, because it was based on a lower base.

However, the Czech Republic holds the first place in the price of electricity when converted to the purchasing power standard. This is an artificial unit, in the calculation of which Eurostat also takes purchasing power parity into account. The average Czech paid 38.68 PPS for a kilowatt hour of electricity. So he gave the highest part of his earnings to pay the electricity bills. In second place at 35.93 PPS per kilowatt is neighboring Germany.

The interconnectedness of industry and the power grid with Germany is one of the explanations for the high electricity prices in the Czech Republic. According to economist Lukáš Kovanda, the Czech Republic is also paying for Germany’s decision from last year to shut down nuclear power plants in the country. “Therefore, Czech households even surpassed German households, which, like the entire local economy, paid for the aforementioned shutdown of the remaining nuclear power plants and which are facing a significant increase in energy prices related to the Energiewende. Last year, in the second half of the year, the Czech Republic was the fourth largest exporter of electricity in the EU. From Only France, Sweden and the Netherlands exported more electricity in net terms in the entire EU. The unusual situation in the Czech Republic is that, despite the relatively high overproduction of electricity, this high production is not reflected in a visible decrease in final prices for households,” he comments on the situation on energy market Lukáš Kovanda.

However, according to statistics, electricity prices have fallen in half of the EU countries compared to 2022. However, they are still higher than before the start of the energy crisis in 2022.