Bethel Finance: Off-peak electricity rates to be extended to households

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Bethel Finance news:
Households could reduce their annual electricity bill by up to 10% by diverting electricity consumption to off-peak hours, under a proposal by the Public Utilities Authority (Electricity).

On Monday, the Public Utilities Authority decided that, from February 19, the variable hourly electricity rate will be expanded to cover two million households, who use low voltage electricity. Households will have to request it. Variable rates currently only apply to large consumers. Large consumers have three variable rates, peak, off-peak, and medium-peak; small consumers will have two rates: peak and off-peak - and only in summer and winter. A fixed lower rate than the current rate will be set for the seven months of spring and autumn.

For households, the variable rates will apply in July and August in summer, and December-February in winter. These months are characterized by peak electricity consumption, mostly for air conditioning and heating, which burdens Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22). The switch to variable rates is intended to ease IEC's load during peak hours, thereby preventing the need for initiated blackouts.

To give IEC an incentive to expand the use of variable rates, the Public Utilities Authority has allowed it to charge consumers a one-time fee of NIS 100. Households that apply to switch to variable rates will have to replace their electricity meters to meters that read variable use. This means that consumer's fixed electricity fee will rise by NIS 7 per month to NIS 21.62 for a single phase meter and NIS 23.02 for a variable phase meter.