Today, households are being robbed by the power companies. The electricity prices are unreasonably high, says Left Party leader Nooshi Dadgostar.
Around a third of the electricity bill consists of the grid fee, which you pay to get the electricity delivered to your home. The fee has risen sharply in recent years and can rise even more in the coming years. For the individual electricity customer, it is difficult to influence - unless you move.
The Left Party sees a problem in that Sweden has privatized a monopoly market, which the electricity grid is. Therefore, the party proposes a two-stage rocket to, as they say, "take back control".
Two-stage rocket
Stage one is to introduce a tax on excess profits in the grid companies and to give municipalities and the state pre-emption rights if private companies are put up for sale.
We believe that a tax would press the price down significantly. There is no reason for companies to charge higher prices if it only goes to a tax, says Dadgostar.
And if the possibility of high profits decreases, the Left Party believes that unscrupulous actors will withdraw from the market.
Another problem with the grid fees is that they vary greatly depending on where you live. For example, in Falköping, which the Left Party leader visits on Thursday, electricity customers pay significantly more than in the neighboring municipalities of Tidaholm and Lidköping.
In Falköping, the grid company is foreign-owned, while in Tidaholm and Lidköping it is municipally owned. For the Left Party leader, it is obvious that different ownership structures play a role in how much profit is taken out.
Companies overcompensate
The Energy Market Inspectorate (EI), which is the supervisory authority and decides on the so-called revenue frameworks for the grid companies, also believes that the companies are overcompensated for their costs. EI wants to change the calculation model, but this requires legislative changes.
For the period 2024-2027, EI has, according to current rules, decided that the revenue framework for all companies is 326 billion kronor, 100 billion kronor higher than the previous period.
Of this, the grid companies plan to make investments of around 30 billion.
The grid companies have taken out enormous profits in recent years. So the high prices do not go to new investments, it is unjustifiably high prices that customers have paid, says Dadgostar.
It's crystal clear. The companies are charging too high prices, just because they can.
