Czechs Overpay More Than 1.3 Billion Crowns for Electricity Due to Incorrect Tariffs

Czech households are collectively losing more than 1.3 billion crowns a year by overpaying for electricity because they're on the wrong distribution tariff. That's according to an analysis by bezDodavatele, which looked at 1,132 household connection points using the two most common single-rate tariffs, D01d and D02d.

According to the Energy Regulatory Office (ERÚ), roughly 65% of households — out of 6.5 million connection points nationwide — are on these tariffs. The trouble is that most people never think to review their tariff and simply stick for years with settings that made sense when they first signed up, even though those same settings now mean they're overpaying.

"We were surprised by just how common this turned out to be. We expected a handful of isolated cases, but it turns out that more than half of the households we analysed could be saving money. And we're not talking about switching suppliers or making any kind of investment — in many cases, all it takes is setting the distribution tariff correctly," said Libor Holub, executive director of bezDodavatele.

The gap between tariffs proved significant: if the 53% of households that could benefit switched to a more suitable tariff, they would save an average of 728 crowns a year, with some cases seeing savings of several thousand crowns annually. Extrapolating these findings to all 1.9 million connection points on D01d and D02d tariffs nationwide, based on ERÚ statistics, the country's total savings potential comes to more than 1.3 billion crowns a year.

Prague residents stand to gain the most from switching tariffs — in the area served by PREdistribuce, switching would make sense for 68% of households. In the EG.D distribution area, which covers southern Bohemia and Moravia along with parts of the Vysočina, Zlín and Olomouc regions, the figure was 51.5%, while in the ČEZ Distribuce area it stood at 46.3%. That said, the biggest average savings — 833 crowns a year — came from switching tariffs within the ČEZ area.

Changing your distribution tariff is simply a matter of contacting your electricity supplier. "The distributor usually changes the tariff within a few days of approving the request, so you won't have to wait long. The real challenge isn't the paperwork — it's realising in the first place that you're paying more than you need to. That's why we built a calculator that lets people check in a couple of minutes whether they're on the right tariff," Holub added.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz