New, improved rules for energy consumers

New rules providing more accurate and transparent energy bills for consumers enter into force across the EU today. The most important new provisions relate to obligations for more accurate and frequent metering of the consumed energy, as well as more transparent billing, and access to relevant information.

EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said:

I welcome these changes. It is a step forward to enabling EU consumers to take better decisions regarding their energy use and to incentivise energy efficiency measures in the areas of heating, cooling and domestic hot water. They reflect the priority that policymakers gave to putting consumers at the heart of the energy transition during the negotiations on the clean energy for all Europeans package.

Under the amending Directive on Energy Efficiency (EU/2018/844), agreed in 2018, Member States had until 25 October 2020 to transpose these elements into national law.

The expected results include:

• Final users and households will have free of charge access to their bills and actual energy consumption;
• For households in multi-apartment buildings, clear rules and technical means will ensure the transparent allocation of the cost for heating, cooling and domestic hot water;
• Households connected to district heating and cooling will receive their bills more often, at least twice a year;
• For all energy users, information about the cost, taxes and environmental impact of the energy they use will be clearly and easily available;
• The same goes for information that will help energy users understand their consumption profile and how they can save energy, change provider, file a complaint, etc.;
• When feasible, newly installed heating, cooling and domestic hot water meters and heat cost allocators will be devices that can be remotely read, the information being available to the respective users;
• When feasible, new apartments connected with a central heating source or district heating for their domestic hot water supply will be equipped with individual meters.

Related links

• Energy efficiency directive