Background information

The government has drawn up several new temporary legislative measures in response to the economic challenges that citizens have been experiencing due to the increased electricity prices.

The acts on retroactive reimbursement for electricity costs (laki takautuvasti maksettavasta väliaikaisesta sähköhyvityksestä) [275/2023] and extended payment periods of electricity bills (laki sähköenergialaskujen maksuajan pidentämisestä ja sähköyhtiöiden maksuvalmiuden väliaikaisesta tukemisesta) [276/2023] entered into force in the beginning of March 2023. The acts are intended to help households and companies to pay their previous electricity bills.

Content of measure

Those with electricity costs exceeding 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, and with electricity contracts based on spot prices (pörssisähkösopimus) will receive retroactive reimbursements for electricity costs per metering point. The reimbursement will be paid over four winter months for 50% of the electricity bill that exceeds €90 per month, with a maximum of €700 reimbursement per month. The instalments are paid in April 2023 and are based on energy consumption between November 2022 and January 2023.

The reimbursement is paid by the retail seller of electricity who will be compensated by the State Treasury. They will need to apply for compensation. The government has established a budget of €400 million for these retroactive reimbursements.

The Act was implemented and is supervised by the Energy Agency (Energiavirasto).

Retail sellers will also extend payment periods for consumption-related electricity bills from 1 January to 30 April 2023, upon customer request. Households may receive up to 120 days of extension and businesses may receive up to 60 days of extension on their bills. Credit institutions and financial institutions are not eligible for an extension. Central government guarantees may be granted to retail sellers to support liquidity.

Use of measure

The reimbursement is paid to all consumers who have signed an electricity contract as private persons, as well as to all self-employed persons with a business ID as long as half of energy consumption is for private usage.

In 2021 there were 3.2 million electricity contracts in Finnish households.

The Energy Agency does not have precise information on how many people have signed an electricity contract for their detached house with a business ID. There are about 250,000 self-employed people and more that 40,000 self-employed people within the farming industry in Finland.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Solo-self-employed	Applies to all citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement as case not in social partner domain	Consulted
Form	Not applicable	Direct consultation outside a formal body

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Sectoral or branch level

Involvement

Social partners were involved in the consultation process when the legislative proposal was being drafted by the government. The consultation received responses from several industry partners, such as Finnish Energy (Energiateollisuus ry), Confederation of Finnish Industries (Elinkeinoelämän keskusliitto EK), the organisation representing Finnish entrepreneurs (Suomen Yrittäjät), and the Finnish Hospitality Association (Matkailu- ja Ravintolapalvelut MaRa ry).

Views and reactions

According to the representative of the electricity industry, Finnish Energy, the measure would be difficult to implement due to the complexity of making payments in the proposed way. One critique concerned the fact that there are around 60 electricity retailers in Finland, with very different customer information systems.

Sources

• 17 October 2022: Yle (2022), "Pörssisähkön käyttäjien määrä kovassa kasvussa – "Usein ainoa vaihtoehto, jos sopimus katkolla", kerrotaan Energiavirastosta" (yle.fi)
• 24 January 2023: Yle (2023), "Sähkön kertatuelle kritiikkiä monimutkaisuudesta: Energiateollisuus pohti tilalle 40–60 prosentin alennusta kuluttajan sähkölaskuun" (yle.fi)
• 06 February 2023: Kuluttajaliitto (2023), "Lausunto takautuvasti maksettavaa sähköhyvitystä sekä sähköenergialaskujen maksuaikojen pidennystä koskevaksi väliaikaiseksi lainsäädännöksi" (www.kuluttajaliitto.fi)
• 03 March 2023: Lakitakautuvasti maksettavasta väliaikaisesta sähköhyvityksestä (2023) (www.finlex.fi)
• 03 March 2023: Laki sähköenergialaskujen maksuajan pidentämisestä ja sähköyhtiöiden maksuvalmiuden väliaikaisesta tukemisesta (2023) (finlex.fi)
• 02 May 2023: Aamulehti (2023) "Energiavirasto avasi tiistaina lomakkeen kuluttajille, jotka ovat jääneet ilman sähköhyvitystä" (www.aamulehti.fi)