Background information

Due to the increase in the price of energy resources, the government has decided to cover part of the expenses for households. The assistance package is included in the amendments to the law on measures to reduce the extraordinary increase in energy prices, adopted by the Parliament (Saeima) on 11 August 2022 as a matter of urgency. The amendments came into force on 13 August 2022.

Content of measure

For households, the state will cover part of the increase in the prices of energy resources (district heating, electricity used for heating, natural gas used for heating, wood pellets, briquettes and firewood).

District heating For the period from 1 October 2022 to 30 April 2023, the heating fee will be reduced by 50% of the difference between the thermal energy tariff approved by the Public Services Regulatory Commission or the relevant municipality and the median thermal energy tariff of €68 per MWh. In order to prevent the price of thermal energy from being unreasonably increased, the upper limit of the unregulated tariff was set at €300 MWh.

Natural gas used for heating For households whose average monthly consumption of natural gas in a 12-month period exceeds 221 kWh per month, the state will cover 50% of the price increase, in amount of €30 per 1 MWh.

Electricity for heating Households whose monthly electricity consumption exceeds 500 kWh and the price of electricity is above €0.160/kWh will receive support for consumption exceeding 500 kWh, while not exceeding 2000 kWh. The state will compensate 50% of the electricity price that exceeds €0.16 per kWh. The compensation should not exceed €0.10 EUR/kWh.

Wood pellets, briquettes If pellets or briquettes are used for heating, compensation is provided for costs exceeding €300 per ton. The state compensates the cost increase in the amount of 50%, but not more than €100 per ton. Support threshold for one household is set to 10 tons.

Firewood If the price of firewood exceeds €40 per bulk cubic meter, 50% of the costs above this price are compensated, but no more than €40 per bulk cubic meter. Support threshold for one household is set to 35 cubic meters.

Use of measure

The annotation of the amendments for the law forecasts the following amounts of necessary financing:

• for natural gas compensations €43,547,655 (65,000 households),
• district heating compensations €167,950,707,
• electricity compensations €53,060,000 (40,000 households),
• wood pellets compensations €19,040,000 (about 60,000 households),
• briquettes compensations €4,032,000,
• firewood compensations €43,545,600 (around 130,000 households).

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Does not apply to workers	Does not apply to businesses	Applies to all citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Local / regional government	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	No involvement as case not in social partner domain
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

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

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: N/A

Involvement

No involvement

Views and reactions

No specific views to report

Sources

• 12 August 2022: Support for households for partial compensation of heating season expenses is enshrined in law (lvportals.lv)
• 01 September 2022: Law on measures to reduce the extraordinary increase in energy resource prices (likumi.lv)