Electricity prices for households in Italy 2010-2020, semi-annually

Electricity prices for households using between 2.500 and 5.000 kWh in Italy saw an overall increase during this period, rising from 19.65 euro cents per kilowatt-hour in 2010 to 22.26 euro cents in the first half of 2020 before slightly decreasing to 21.53 euro cents per kWh in the second part of 2020. Costs peaked at 24.5 euro cents per kilowatt-hour in 2014. Households consuming between 1.000 and 2.500 kWh usually paid more for electricity through the considered period .

High electricity prices

The average price customers in Italy paid for electricity saw a lot of variation per quarter between 2014 and 2020. Despite seeing a decrease of approximately eight percent in the second quarter of 2018, the following quarters saw consecutive increases. As of 2020, Italy paid some of the highest prices for electricity in the world. Since the end of 2019 however electricity prices for Italian households consuming between 2.500 and 5.000 kWh started to decrease. Prices for households consuming between 1.000 and 2.500 kWh however continued to stay high.

Pricing factors

Factors such as the fuel used to generate energy plays a role in the prices paid for electricity. The country is mainly reliant on natural gas for its energy mix and it made up 59.5 percent of the total in 2018. Despite a reliance on gas, Italy produces very little natural gas itself and is dependent on imports. In fact, Italy is the second largest natural gas importer in Europe. The main natural gas exporters to Italy in 2019 were Russia and Algeria.