How is the price formed?
Joustosähkö pricing consists of three components:
- fixed basic price of electricity (c/kWh)
- fixed monthly basic fee (€/month)
- consumption effect that varies (+/- c/kWh)
The fixed basic price is what you pay when your energy consumption is steady around the clock and there is no difference to the average price of the day. Also monthly basic fee stays the same.
Your consumption effect varies monthly and it is not fixed. Usually the effect is somewhere between +/- 0–5 c/kWh. One month it might be -4 c/kWh if you have used electricity during the hours when it is cheaper and then next month it can be + 3 c/kWh if you use it on expensive hours. The confumption effect is usually bigger during the months when electricity is expensive, like in winter time, and smaller during summer. The consumption effect is always determined afterwards during invoicing as your hourly consumption and the exchange prices are compared.
When you use electricity during cheap hours, for example at night, your consumption effect lowers the price you pay.
When you use electricity during expensive hours, like in the morning or early evening, your price rises because of the consumption effect.
How can you benefit from Joustosähkö?
Follow how you use electricity so that you know at what times you use electricity the most. Then it is easier for you to move your electricity consumption to those hours that are less expensive. You can also monitor the exchage prices of electricity to know when electricity is cheap and when it is expensive.
Joustosähkö is a fixed-term contract with elements of exchange priced electricity
Joustosähkö is a safe and stable option because it is a fixed-term contract. The fixed energy price is based on the market prices at the derivatives exchange like in all fixed-term contracts. That means that we have bought the electicity that we estimate that you will use already for the whole contract period at a certain price. That is why the consumer price c/kWh of fixed-term contracts remains the same and changes in the electricity exchange prices won’t affect it. For this reason many households that want to be able to estimate their electricity expenses choose fixed-term contracts.
Joustosähkö’s basic fixed price is not directly affected by the market prices of exchange electricity. Only your own consumption – whether you yous electricity when it is expensive or cheap – affects your final price. That is what we call consumption effect.
Consumption effect – what does it mean and how does it work?
Consumption effect (sometimes also called consumption elasticity, usage effect or profile cost) means that the final price you pay in a moths is affected by your own usage of electricity. The basic price is fixed but you may get a small increase or decrease to it depending on how you have been using electricity. The difference between your consumption and how other electricity users have behaved is your consumption effect.
You benefit from the consumption effect when you use electricity in those times when it is cheap at the Nord Pool electricity exchange.
How Joustosähkö differs from the regular fixed-term electricity contracts is that there is an elastic pricing element (consumption effect) involved, that is based on the Nordic electricity exchange prices. Exchange priced electricity contract prices are set hourly at the Nord Pool exchange. The price of electricity is at its highest during the hours when there is the most consumption. Typically those hours are on weekdays between 07:00 and 09:00 in the morning and early evening when people come home from work. The cheapest hours are often at night between 02:00 and 04:00. How much of your consumption you can move to those cheapes hours defines your consumption effect and how much you eventually pay for electricity. In other words, if you use electricity fairly evenly during both cheap and expensive hours, your consumption effect is 0 c/kWh or close to 0, meaning that your price will be the fixed basic price.
How is the consumption effect calculated?
We calculate the average price for the month by multiplying the exchange price of each hout with your consumption. Then we divide the total of that with your total consumption for the month. The difference of this weighted average and the general average of the month is your consumption effect that is either added to your price or discounted from it.
We calculate the weighted average of the consumption effect that is compared to the month’s average the following way: ∑ (X*Y) / Z = c/kWh
∑ = sum of all days of the month
X = consumption of an hour
Y = the exchange price of an hour
Z = the total electricity consumption of the month
Here are a couple of examples based on real cases:
A detached house with electric heating system
Total hourly consumption for the month is 1 800 kWh (Z). Your combined hourly consumption total is 17 388 cents (X*Y). 17 388 c/1 800 kWh = 9,66 c/kWh, which is your weighted average price. The monthly average of the exchange price has been 11 c/kWh.
This makes your consumption effect to be 9,66–11 = –1,34 c/kWh.
When the consumption effect is negative, that lowers the final price you pay for the month. For example, if your fixed basic price is 9,90 c/kWh, your final price for the month would be 8,56 c/kWh in this case.
Apartment duplex with district heat
Total hourly consumption for the month is 160 kWh (Z). Your combined hourly consumption total is 1974,4 cents (X*Y). 1974,4 c/160 kWh = 12,34 c/kWh, which is your weighted average price. The monthly average of the exchange price has been 11 c/kWh.
So this makes your consumption effect to be 12,34–11 = 1,34 c/kWh.
When the consumption effect is positive, that raises the final price you pay. For example, if your fixed basic price is 10 c/kWh, your final price for the month would be 11,34 c/kWh.
