Increase in the price of electricity: who is affected by the increase?

Aurélien Fleurot and Tatiana Geiselmann, edited by Yanis Darras 2:29 p.m., February 01, 2023

Small change, big impact.

On February 1, 2023, the price of electricity increases by 15%.

A significant increase, which will certainly be noticed on customer invoices.

"I have electric heating, so it will inevitably have an impact. I will buy less for myself, that's all", explains a Strasbourg woman at the microphone of Europe 1. 

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More than 20 million households affected

A little further in the Alsatian town, a student is worried about the reduction of her budget.

"I think I paid around 38 euros per month for electricity until now, so I'm not sure how I'm going to do it. Afterwards, maybe I'll be entitled to the energy check", hopes she. 

In total, this increase in the regulated electricity tariff affects more than 20 million households and also nearly 1.5 million small professionals in France, Corsica and overseas.

According to the government, this increase will represent an additional twenty euros on its bill each month, even if everything will obviously depend on the option chosen in the contract taken out. 

Prices that explode because of the price of gas, but not only

If the customer does not want to modify his monthly payments, there will be an adjustment at the end of the year.

The only good news for the French, the 15% increase should be the only one of the year, thanks to the tariff shield.

Already last year, the price per kilowatt hour (kWh) rose by 4%. 

But without state intervention, this would have been +100%, according to data from the Energy Regulatory Commission, which explains these large increases on the one hand by the very high price of wholesale gas prices on which depend electricity prices and also by the anticipation of low availability of the French nuclear fleet.