Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

We purchased our holiday home in Liguria in Jan 2018. We have a gas & electricity supply contract with Spigas, which we were encouraged to enter into by the Agent we purchased our home through. Since we only use our home for short periods, our annual gas and electricity consumption is very low. However, the cost is incredibly high -most of the charge seems to be made-up of "system charges" -for example our most recent bill was for €63 -only €16 was for our actual consumption of electricity. We only used 100kWh of electricity during the billing period, so our bill woks out at a staggering €0.63/kWh. By comparison our total cost per kWh in the UK is about €0.18/kWh.
Does anyone have any experience in changing suppliers in Italy and are any tariffs available for low consumption users of gas & electricity? Any advice gratefully received, in particular are there any online price comparison websites?

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

I changed from ENEL to ENI and was still receiving bills from (a bit menacing) ENEL one year after the switch. This July ENI's cost of electricity is .€0.24 per kw. On €22 of electricity the service cost is €16 and €4 IVA = €42.

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

Don't forget that the cost of a TV licence is now automatically added to your electricty bills, in instalments over the first 10 months of the year. So, unless you have no television and have correctly informed the 'authorities' of the fact then you'll also be paying for that. In the case of your "most recent bill" that could account for €18 of the total - but should be clearly identified.

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

You willp ay the oneri del sistema whoever you are with. The Kw hour charge might vary by half a cent, but the bill will stay the same.

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

For the periods my house is unoccupied the regular 2 monthly bill I receive is around 42-45 euros and is made up entirely of service charges of one kind or another - no electricity usage at all.. I always feel properly stung at having to pay it as it just seems like another rip off and money in their pockets at my expense for nothing in return, but hey-ho, that's life in Italy right, and only to be expected... I wasn't even aware that switching suppliers was an option as I thought Servizio Elettrico Nazionale had it all stitched up nice and tight as a monopoly so that's nice to know, although I don't suppose there will be an Italian version of Martin Lewis to help all of us hard hit consumers out with a handy website for switching purposes and the option of getting cash back for your switch... if only..!

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

Ihad no idea that the TV License was included in the electricity cost. We have never had a TV in our Italian home -does anyone know who I should notify to get the charge stopped? Also, how does the charge normally show on the bill? Thanks David

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

Look for Canone and this RAI link gives you more information.

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

I just did some googling and found this link which claims that non residents don't actually pay the TV licence but pay a higher electricity tariff instead. I knew about the higher non resident tariff already but as for the other claim.. I can only scratch my head.... :confused: The relevant sentence is about halfway down the page under the Utility costs heading. Whether it's actually true or not, I haven't got a clue - could someone clarify please..? .

On my own electricity bill, the only part of it which I could (at a stretch and with my crap beginners Italian) link to TV licensing is the 'Spesa per Oneri di Sistema part which is 20.73 Euros. The rest of the charges on the bill are under 10 euros each so seem unlikely candidates. Maybe someone can come and spell it out in simple terms to those of us who can't make head nor tail of it...

https://www.dandgdesign.co.uk/buying...ner-the-costs/

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

I've checked back through my electricity bills for the last year and can't see anything which looks remotely like a TV charge. Perhaps it's because, as suggested in the link posted by Jake, I'm paying more for my electricity (since I'm not normally/fully resident in Italy) and so don't have the mandatory TV charge applied.
Based on 100kWh of consumption between 1st Sept and 31st Oct the breakdown of my bill was:
Spesa per la materia energia 16,39
Trasporto e gestione contatore 14,82
Oneri di sistema 23,87
Altre partite 0,10
Totale imposte 2,28
Sconto invio fattura per e-mail -0,50
Totale IVA 5,70
TOTALE DA PAGARE 62,66

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

It is quite clear on our, but others may differ. It has "Canone di abbonamento alla televisione per uso privato di" followed by the date...
You could always look to go off grid... To be honest there are not many companies in the UK these days where you can get no standing charge....

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

Non residents don't pay the tv licence. If you are non resident in Italy and you somehow have obtained a residents' suppy contract from the electric company you can apply to the tax office for a rebate.(modulo per esonero). Oneri sistema has nothing to do with the TV licence.
https://luce-gas.it/guida/bolletta/canone-rai

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

Note last I look you had to apply every year to be excluded....

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

Same was true last time I looked. And you had (then) to send a registered A/R letter each time.

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

I figured the Oneri Sistema had nothing to do with it as it translates as system charge.. There's definitely nothing like the example Geordie gave on my bill so it looks like we don't pay it right enough. Just as well as we don't have a TV..:thumbsup:

Re: Electricity & gas costs in Italy -changing supplier?
 

On the ENI bill the wording is just the same under the heading Riepilogo bolletta with €9 debited.