Portuguese and German households spend the most on electricity

Portugal is one of the European countries where consumers spend a high proportion of earnings on domestic electricity – equal to Germany.

Looking at the cost of electricity as a percentage of consumers’ standard purchasing power, Portugal and Germany were neck and neck at 0.29% per kilowatt hour (kWh), a figure that is expected to fall to about 0.20% in the case of Portugal for the current year, 2018.

This data is from Eurostat and PORDATA which lists the top ten countries, with Portugal and Germany followed by Poland, Belgium, Spain, Romania, Latvia, Greece, Denmark and Czech Republic in that order.

The best place to be reliant on electricity in Finland where its 5.5 million inhabitants easily afford domestic electricity, it accounts for just 0.13% of consumers’ standard purchasing power against a European average of 0.2%.

Next year’s reduction in electricity prices for over a million Portuguese consumers should shave 3.5% off their bill with those other consumers in the liberalised market gaining a smaller discount.

See: ‘Electricity bills to drop next year’