Already at the beginning of this year, we were shocked by sky-high electricity bills.

At the time we thought they were improbably expensive.

But it will be even worse this winter.

In January we get the electricity bill which is several times larger than the one we get now in December.

- The invoice now in December, which refers to November's consumption, is on average SEK 2,800 for a standard villa in southern Sweden.

In January, it will be significantly higher, says Maria Erdmann, CEO of God El, who calculated how electricity costs could be this winter based on how electricity futures are traded on the stock exchange now.

It turns out that we have some really tough months ahead of us.

The electricity cost for December, January and February will be a total of around SEK 37,500 for the standard villa that consumes 20,000 kWh in electricity area 4 (southern Götaland), according to God El's calculations.

In electricity area 3, it ends up at SEK 35,100.

- It is a lot of money compared to what we paid last winter, she says.

Stop nuclear power

The reasons for the high electricity prices are several - the war in Ukraine has made the energy market in Europe anxious, she explains, and now demand and supply do not match.

France has problems with its nuclear power plants, and has to import electricity from Germany.

Germany's electricity market is connected to our electricity market, and needs to import electricity.

Here in Sweden, the Ringhals 4 nuclear power plant is at a standstill, and the shutdown will be extended for several weeks this winter.

This December, the largest reactor in Sweden, Oskarshamn 3, will also be shut down for a few weeks.

It affects the prices here in Sweden, she notes.

- Electricity prices are very weather-driven, and the forecast for winter is that it will be cold and dry, and that it will be windy.

We had lower electricity prices than feared in the early autumn, precisely because of the weather and now the weather forecasts have moved forward, and the nuclear shutdown has caused prices to rise again.

- It is very good that the electricity subsidy is coming, and everyone gets it, both villa owners and apartment owners in southern Sweden.

She says that they see a certain overrepresentation of electricity customers with small margins who live in apartments and who now have difficulty paying their electricity bills.

- The extreme are pensioners, or single parents, who find it difficult to pay.

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Photo: SVT/TT