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  3. Modul 03

Part 1 · The basics

What does the electricity bill say?

You get two invoices for one kind of electricity, from two companies, only one of which you can change. This module goes through every line and shows where each krona goes. Roughly four in every ten kronor are tax.

Rohi Perlsteyn, KronwattPublished Updated

In brief

  • You choose who sells you the electricity. But not who owns the wire to your house.
  • Tax and VAT are 41 per cent of what you pay for electricity.
  • The tax on electricity fell on 1 January 2026. It is now 36 öre.
  • Electricity costs far more in the south than in the north. The tax is the same everywhere.
On this page
  1. Why two invoices?
  2. The bill, line by line
  3. Who gets the money?
  4. The tax, and the 2026 cut
  5. Why the neighbour in Malmö pays more
  6. What you can actually change
  7. Check yourself

Why two invoices?

The answer dates from 1996. That year the Swedish electricity market was split in two: trading in electricity was opened to competition, while the wires stayed a regulated monopoly.

That is why you have two contracts. Your retailer sells you the kilowatt-hours, and you can change them whenever you like. Your grid company owns the wire up to the house, and you can never change it — no more than you can choose which street you live on. That is why Energimarknadsinspektionen decides what the grid may charge.

If both contracts sit with the same group, they can be collected on one invoice. They are still the same two items.

The bill, line by line

Fetch your own invoice and read along. The lines are named much the same everywhere.

From the retailer — the one you can change

Line What it is
Electricity price, öre/kWhThe electricity itself. A fixed price, a variable monthly price, or one that follows the market hour by hour. The retailer's mark-up sits inside it.
Fixed annual feeRoughly 100 to 500 kronor a year, whatever you use.
Electricity certificatesAn old support charge for renewable electricity. Today about 0.1 öre/kWh — see below.
VAT25 per cent, on everything above.

From the grid company — the one you cannot change

Line What it is
Subscription feeFixed, and set by the size of your main fuse — 16, 20 or 25 amperes. It changes only if the fuse does.
Transfer feeVariable, öre per kilowatt-hour. Payment for the electricity actually reaching you.
Energy taxThe state's tax, but invoiced by the grid company since 1 January 2018. So it is not the grid company's money.
State feesThree small fees: grid preparedness, electrical safety and grid supervision. Together 139.89 kr a year excluding VAT, in 2026.
VAT25 per cent, on everything above — including on the energy tax.

Who gets the money?

SCB divides the household electricity price into exactly four parts. This is how they looked for a house using 15 000 kWh or more, in the second half of 2025.

209.21 öre per kilowatt-hour, divided up

  • The electricity itself66,85

  • The grid56,62

  • Energy tax43,90

  • VAT41,84

SCB, official statistics on household electricity prices, second half of 2025. The electricity itself is about 32 per cent of the bill, the grid 27, energy tax 21 and VAT 20. Tax and VAT together: 41 per cent.

The tax, and the 2026 cut

On 1 January 2026 the energy tax on electricity fell from 43.9 to 36.0 öre per kilowatt-hour. The figures are stated excluding VAT, as excise duties normally are. With 25 per cent VAT a consumer therefore pays 45.0 öre instead of 54.9.

For a house using 20 000 kWh a year that is a difference of just under 2 000 kronor.

20 000 × 0,079 × 1,25 = 1 975 kr

If you live in one of the northern municipalities covered by the reduction, a further 9.6 öre per kilowatt-hour is deducted. It is one of the few lines on the bill that depends on where in the country you live rather than on what you do.

Why the neighbour in Malmö pays more

Since 2011 Sweden has been divided into four price areas: SE1 Luleå, SE2 Sundsvall, SE3 Stockholm and SE4 Malmö. Production sits in the north, consumption in the south, and the lines between them are not always enough. When the northern surplus cannot get through, southern Sweden has to buy more expensively, and the price splits.

Price area Average 2025, öre/kWh
SE1 Luleå18,50
SE2 Sundsvall18,31
SE3 Stockholm51,25
SE4 Malmö66,97
 Energiföretagen Sverige, Elåret 2025. These are market prices, that is only the first of the four bars above. The energy tax is the same across the country outside the northern municipalities. The grid fee, by contrast, differs sharply between grid companies — by more than a factor of two between the cheapest and the dearest.

So Malmö paid close to four times what Luleå did for the same goods, in the same year. The gap between north and south sat around 30 öre in 2023 and 2024, and widened to about 50 öre during 2025.

Svenska kraftnät expects the gap to narrow, as new industry in the north starts consuming the surplus where it is made. In their analysis the flow between SE1 and SE2 even reverses direction in 2029. That is a forecast, not a promise — but it is worth knowing before drawing twenty-year conclusions from today's figures.

Electricity certificates: the line that nearly vanished

Certificates were a support scheme for renewable electricity, paid through your bill. In 2015 they cost 2.8 öre per kilowatt-hour excluding VAT. Today they are about 0.1 öre including VAT — a rounding error.

The system is not abolished, but it has been closed to new plants since the end of 2021 and ends entirely in 2035. From 2026 the threshold for the quota obligation was also raised sharply, which takes ordinary households with solar panels out of it altogether.

What you can actually change

This is the useful part of the module. Of the four bars, there is really only one you negotiate.

Part of the bill Can you influence it?
The electricity itselfYes. By changing contract, changing contract type, or using electricity at different hours.
The gridNo, not the price. The fixed part only by changing your main fuse, which requires the house to manage on it.
Energy taxNo. It is per kilowatt-hour, so the only thing that lowers it is using fewer.
VATNo. It follows everything else.

Three of the four lines fall only if you use fewer kilowatt-hours. That is why this course is more about the house than about the contract.

Check yourself

Five questions. Do fetch your own invoice while you answer.

  1. Question 1You are unhappy with your grid fee. What can you do?

    • You cannot, and it is worth knowing before you ring up and get angry. The grid is a monopoly — a single company owns the wire to your street. That is why Energimarknadsinspektionen regulates what they may charge instead.

    • Exactly. The transfer fee is öre per kilowatt-hour, so it follows your use. The fixed subscription fee changes only if the main fuse does — and that requires the house to cope with a smaller one.

    • Negotiation assumes you can go elsewhere. With the retailer you can, which is why it pays off there. With the grid there is no alternative, so a public authority sets the limits instead.

  2. Question 2Your friend in a flat pays 299 öre/kWh. You in a house pay 209. Why?

    • Nobody gets a discount. In the statistics the electricity price itself is sometimes even lower for the flat. What differs is the fixed charges and how many kilowatt-hours they are divided across.

    • Yes. Subscription, annual fee and state fees are much the same whatever you use. Divided across 3 000 kilowatt-hours they make a high öre figure; across 20 000 a low one. So an öre price means nothing without the consumption behind it.

    • That could of course also be true, but it does not explain this gap: the figures come from the same statistics and the same half-year, split by consumption and not by geography.

  3. Question 3The energy tax appears on the grid company's invoice. Whose money is it?

    • It is a reasonable conclusion from an invoice, and it is wrong. The grid company collects the tax and passes it on to Skatteverket. The task moved there from the retailer on 1 January 2018, for administrative reasons.

    • Yes. And it is worth keeping separate when comparing grid fees between companies: the tax is the same everywhere outside the northern municipalities, so it says nothing about who is dearest.

    • The retailer did invoice the energy tax until 2018, so the memory is right — but no longer. Today it sits on the grid invoice, and it goes to the state.

  4. Question 4A house in Malmö and one in Luleå use the same amount of electricity. How different are the bills?

    • Four times applies to the market price — 66.97 against 18.50 öre in 2025. But the market price is only the first of four bars. The energy tax is the same, and the grid fee depends on the grid company rather than the price area, so the whole bill differs far less.

    • Exactly, and it is why the four-bar figure is worth remembering. The price area moves only one of them. Luleå also sits in a municipality with reduced energy tax, worth another 9.6 öre. The grid fee can differ widely either way — it depends on the grid company, not on the price area.

    • That was true before 2011. Since then Sweden has been divided into four price areas, precisely because the lines between north and south are not enough, and the price is meant to show where capacity is missing.

  5. Question 5You move to a contract that is 10 öre/kWh cheaper. How much does the whole bill fall?

    • Close, but one item is missing: VAT sits on top. Ten öre less on the electricity price becomes 12.5 öre less on the bill, because you also avoid the VAT on those ten.

    • Yes: 10 × 1.25 = 12.5 öre. The small detail works both ways, and is worth carrying when comparing offers, since retailers often quote prices excluding VAT while your invoice includes it.

    • The grid fee is entirely independent of which electricity contract you hold. The two companies set their prices separately, and one movement does not affect the other.

Your answers live only in your browser, and vanish when you leave the page.

Sources

  1. SCB, official statistics on prices of electricity and its transmission, household prices for the second half of 2025: 66.85 + 56.62 + 43.90 + 41.84 = 209.21 öre/kWh for the 15 000 kWh and above category. The flat category, 2 500–4 999 kWh: 299.20 öre/kWh.
  2. Energimarknadsinspektionen, Elmarknaden: trading in electricity was separated from transmission in 1996; the grid is a regulated monopoly.
  3. Skatteverket: the energy tax falls from 43.9 to 36.0 öre/kWh on 1 January 2026, with a reduction of 9.6 öre in certain northern municipalities. Excise duties are stated excluding VAT.
  4. Elsäkerhetsverket: the state fees for low voltage in 2026 — grid preparedness 120 kr, electrical safety 15.54 kr, grid supervision 4.35 kr, together 139.89 kr a year excluding VAT.
  5. Energiföretagen Sverige, Elåret 2025: annual average price per area, SE1 18.50, SE2 18.31, SE3 51.25 and SE4 66.97 öre/kWh.
  6. Svenska kraftnät, short-term market analysis 2025, presented in March 2026: the north–south gap is expected to narrow, and the flow between SE1 and SE2 to reverse in 2029.
  7. Energimarknadsbyrån and Energimyndigheten on electricity certificates: about 0.1 öre/kWh including VAT in 2025–2026 against 2.8 öre in 2015; closed to new plants after 2021; ends in 2035. The 2026 quota level is stated differently by different sources, so we state none.