Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
Ministero dell'ambiente e della sicurezza energetica (Ministry of Environment and Energy Security)
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Energy Department
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Technical Secretariat of the Energy Department
1.5. Contact mail address
Via Sallustiana, 53 - 00187 Rome
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
18 July 2022
2.2. Metadata last posted
15 June 2022
2.3. Metadata last update
15 June 2022
3.1. Data description
European statistics on electricity prices for household and final non-household customers.
3.2. Classification system
Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual electricity consumption bands and tax levels.
3.3. Coverage - sector
Household sector and final non-household sector (industry, services, offices, agriculture, etc).
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The prices are reported in national currencies per kWh and according to different bands of consumption.
For the household sector, these bands are:
DA: customers consuming less than 1000 kWh.
DB: customers consuming 1000 kWh or more but less than 2500 kWh.
DC: customers consuming 2500 kWh or more but less than 5000 kWh.
DD: customers consuming 5000 kWh or more but less than 15000 kWh.
DE: customers consuming 15000 kWh or more.
For the final non-household sector, the bands are:
IA: customers consuming less than 20 MWh.
IB: customers consuming 20 MWh or more but less than 500 MWh.
IC: customers consuming 500 MWh or more but less than 2000 MWh.
ID: customers consuming 2000 MWh or more but less than 20000 MWh.
IE: customers consuming 20000 MWh or more but less than 70000 MWh.
IF: customers consuming 70000 MWh or more but less than 150000 MWh.
IG: customers consuming 150000 MWh or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disaggregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: generation, aggregation, balancing energy, supplied energy costs, customer services, after-sales management and other supply costs.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs, and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: Taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to capacity payments, energy security and generation adequacy; taxes on coal industry restructuring; taxes on electricity distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
Nuclear taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the nuclear sector, including nuclear decommissioning, inspections and fees for nuclear installations.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous five categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculate the single national electricity prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE) but not published because it could be used to re-calculate some confidential values.
Point 6(a) of Annex I related to the sub-components on network prices and to the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges;
Point 5(a) of Annex II related to the sub-components on network prices and to the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges.
Therefore, Italy did not submit the sub-components on network prices and the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges for 2017 and 2018 data.
TAX COMPONENTS
Electricity bills include these general and not recoverable levies (except for VAT which is recoverable for non-household customers), which are components of the transmission/distribution charges, and their rates are defined by ARERA (the Regulatory Authority):
ASOS covering costs related to the support of renewable energies and cogeneration;
ARIM covering other costs for the general interest of the power system and identified by law.
The ASOS and ARIM components are expressed in three fees:
euro cents/withdrawal point per year,
euro cents/kW per year and
euro cents/kWh.
The euro/kW per year fee is not applied to household, while the euro cent/kWh fee is applied for consumption brackets. Resident household customers do not even pay the euro cent/withdrawal point per year fee.
The ASOS component is applied to non-household customers in a different way depending on whether or not they are companies with high electricity consumption. Companies with high electricity consumption pays different ASOS rate depending on the class of consumption.
The ASOS component is made up of different elements, applied separately to the various consumption classes.
The ARIM component is applied in an undifferentiated manner. The ARIM component also consists of several elements covering costs deriving from: decommissioning of nuclear plants, incentives for production attributable to non-biodegradable waste, a special tariff regime granted to RFI (state railways), R&D activities aimed at technological innovation of general interest of the electricity system, tariff protection measures for poor household customers, tariff surcharges for smaller electricity companies, measures and interventions for the promotion of energy efficiency in end uses, interventions in favor of technological and industrial development for energy efficiency, financing of territorial compensation measures.
Starting from 2023, the costs of decommissioning nuclear power plants are financed through the state budget and no longer from the specific component of the ARIM (which was included until 2022).
Starting from October 2021, the Italian Government has implemented extraordinary and temporary measures to contain the exceptional increases in energy prices with the allocation of resources from the State Budget. It was therefore possible to set to zero the ASOS and ARIM component rates for all household users and non-household low voltage users with available power up to 16.5 kW. The components have been set to zero from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2023.
UC3 and UC6:
components concerning the equalization of transmission and distribution costs and service continuity improvements, identified by ARERA. From January 2020 to December 2023, the UC6 component has been set to zero.
Excise duty:
FOR HOUSEHOLD USERS:
For resident consumers with a capacity up to 3 kW
0 €/kWh for consumption up to 150 kWh per month
0.0227 €/kWh for consumption over 150 kWh per month
For consumers with a capacity greater than 3 kW or not resident
0.0227 €/kWh
FOR INDUSTRIAL USERS:
For consumption up to 1200 MWh per month
12.5 €/MWh for the first 200 MWh of consumption during the month
7.5 €/MWh for consumption over 200 MWh
For consumption over 1200 MWh per month
12.5 €/MWh for the first 200 MWh of consumption during the month
VAT
10% of the price including Excise duty.
3.5. Statistical unit
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
3.6. Statistical population
Household customers: Data coming from 607 suppliers out of 723 and representing 88% of the household customers' consumption, according to the consumption volume estimated by Terna (Terna is the operator of the national electricity transmission grid and its statistical office is part of the National Statistical System, pursuant to the Prime Minister's Decree of 12 March 2002).
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 616 suppliers out of 723 and representing 83% of the final non-household customers' consumption, according to the consumption volume estimated by Terna.
3.7. Reference area
Whole country
3.8. Coverage - Time
Electricity prices data for Italy are available since 2008.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Prices are reported in national currency per kWh. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity). Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2.
For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
At EU level:
Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2169 of 21 November 2017 concerning the format and arrangements for the transmission of European Statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 granting derogations to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic and the Republic of Cyprus as regards the provision of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2018) 7465) (Text with EEA relevance).
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/803 concerning the content of quality reports on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation a part from its usual dissemination channel (Eurostat's database, statistic explained articles and press or news release) .
At national level:
Data is sent to Eurostat.
Data is shared at the national level with IEA.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
At EU level:
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
At national level:
The data collected in the price survey are considered confidential and private; sensitive data are not disseminated except in aggregate and anonymous form. The processing of the requested data is carried out in accordance with legislative decree 30 June 2003, n.196.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Published data do not allow the identification of single consumers.
Data are not yet published but only sent to Eurostat and IEA in aggregate form.
8.1. Release calendar
No release calendar is published.
8.2. Release calendar access
There is no calendar.
8.3. Release policy - user access
Not applicable
Italian electricity prices are published on a semestrial basis on Eurostat's website.
Italian electricity prices are published on a semestrial basis on IEA's price statistics.
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
No national press release related to the data.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
No publication related to the data.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
No national database related to the data.
10.3.1. Data tables - consultations
Not applicable
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
Dataset is not accessible as micro-data.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
No other ways of dissemination.
10.5.1. Metadata - consultations
Not applicable.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
A handbook with instructions to fill in web questionnaires for submitting data is provided to suppliers.
Compliance of suppliers in submitting data is monitored.
The quality of the data is ensured by the dissemination of an instruction manual for completing the questionnaires as well as the availability of a dedicated helpdesk service which helps the suppliers in compiling the data and an accurate process of data validation.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
The quality of the statistical outputs is guaranteed by the high number of respondents to the survey. Possible quality deficiencies can come from the poor accuracy of the billing databases from which the suppliers draw the data; invoicing adjustments including invoicing adjustments from delayed meter readings.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
The only user of the data are Eurostat and IEA and the needs are fulfilled.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
There isn't any method in place for measuring the satisfaction of users.
12.3. Completeness
100%
12.3.1. Data completeness - rate
100%
13.1. Accuracy - overall
Potential errors:
Error of the provider;
Bad filter over the period;
Bad consideration of new and outgoing customers in the assignment of consumption bands;
Error input in the online questionnaires.
The error in the estimate of average prices is low as the companies that do not usually respond in each edition of the data collection are those of very small size. Companies responding to the survey covers an extremely large share of the electricity market.
13.2. Sampling error
Given the high percentage of the population represented the sampling error is considered negligible.
13.2.1. Sampling error - indicators
No precisions measures of the sampling error are available.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Information is included in the sub-concepts S.13.3.1-S.13.3.5.
13.3.1. Coverage error
Given the high percentage of the population represented, all different kinds of households (single persons, couples, families, etc.) and non-households (different services, big, small, etc.) are well represented in the sample.
13.3.1.1. Over-coverage - rate
No over-coverage: data reported belong to the target population.
13.3.1.2. Common units - proportion
100% of the data come from the survey
13.3.2. Measurement error
No estimates of the measurement error are available.
13.3.3. Non response error
See points below.
13.3.3.1. Unit non-response - rate
There is a number of suppliers that do not answer the survey although they are asked for. It is impossible to know the exact number of companies that have to submit data in the survey for household customers or for industrial customers because it is not known in advance what kind of customers they sell. The sellers who must participate in the survey, in fact, are those who in the ARERA's companies registry has declared to carry out the activity of selling to final customers. In the registry, however, it is not required to indicate whether the sale is aimed at household or industrial customers.
13.3.3.2. Item non-response - rate
On average 1% of suppliers fail to provide information about specific items but still provide information on the rest of the data.
13.3.4. Processing error
The processing error is unlike since the survey is fully automated. The survey is web-based: to send data, suppliers must complete online questionnaires and/or upload XML files. The data delivered is stored in databases through well-established routines.
13.3.5. Model assumption error
Not Applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Electricity providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the electricity price data within 45 days after the reference period. After arrival, the statistical office checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.
Some suppliers do not respect 45 days deadline or do not submit data at all. Starting from the survey on prices for the first semester of 2022, to increase punctuality and the rate of response, ARERA has adopted a new resolution that gives a penalty to suppliers that do not submit data.
14.1.1. Time lag - first result
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 3 days after the deadline.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 3 days after the deadline.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 8 days after the deadline.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 2 days after the deadline.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 0 days after the deadline.
The first version of the electricity price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 0 days after the deadline.
14.1.2. Time lag - final result
Version 2 of the gas price questionnaire for households and for non households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 204 days after the reference period.
Version 2 of the electricity price questionnaire for non households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 204 days after the reference period.
14.2. Punctuality
The legal deadline for submitting the questionnaires is the third month after the reference period.
14.2.1. Punctuality - delivery and publication
See 14.1.1.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
No problem of comparability between countries or regions.
15.1.1. Asymmetry for mirror flow statistics - coefficient
Not applicable
15.2. Comparability - over time
There have been some changes but not enough to warrant the designation of a break in series.
Changes with a very limited impact were made on the general charges applied in the bill.
15.2.1. Length of comparable time series
all semesters
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Not applicable
15.3.1. Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics
Not applicable
15.3.2. Coherence - National Accounts
Not applicable
15.4. Coherence - internal
Annual prices are coherent with the semestrial prices.
The cost or burden for the production of statistical data on respondents is not measured. However, the answer of suppliers is facilitated by an online questionnaire in the form of successive tables of figures to be completed or by the submission of an XML file. The accuracy of the figures requested requires the implementation of queries on billing databases, the support of IT departments, back offices.
17.1. Data revision - policy
Semester n data are checked immediately after the delivery of the data.
Semester n-1 data are also revised when submitting the semester n data for consistency reasons between semestrial and annual prices.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Revisions are requested from the suppliers immediately after the delivery of the data when data are inconsistent with those previously submitted or when the values are very distant from the average values.
17.2.1. Data revision - average size
Household electricty prices collection: 0
Non-household electricity prices collection: 0
18.1. Source data
A specific survey is carried out by ARERA. Prices submitted come from suppliers’ billing databases.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Quarterly
18.3. Data collection
On-line survey. Suppliers must fill in web-based questionnaires. Alternatively, suppliers can upload data via XML files
Input data is validated for consistency and completeness.
In case of inconsistent price data, the data providers are contacted to request a reconfirmation of the data.
Validation activities also include: checking that the population coverage and response rates are as required; comparing the statistics with previous cycles; confronting the statistics against other relevant data (internal); investigating inconsistencies in the statistics; verifying the statistics against expectations and domain intelligence, outlier detection.
18.5. Data compilation
National prices are weighted by sold volumes (for each band individually).
18.5.1. Imputation - rate
0%
18.6. Adjustment
Not applicable
18.6.1. Seasonal adjustment
Seasonable adjustments are not carried out.
European statistics on electricity prices for household and final non-household customers.
15 June 2022
The prices are reported in national currencies per kWh and according to different bands of consumption.
For the household sector, these bands are:
DA: customers consuming less than 1000 kWh.
DB: customers consuming 1000 kWh or more but less than 2500 kWh.
DC: customers consuming 2500 kWh or more but less than 5000 kWh.
DD: customers consuming 5000 kWh or more but less than 15000 kWh.
DE: customers consuming 15000 kWh or more.
For the final non-household sector, the bands are:
IA: customers consuming less than 20 MWh.
IB: customers consuming 20 MWh or more but less than 500 MWh.
IC: customers consuming 500 MWh or more but less than 2000 MWh.
ID: customers consuming 2000 MWh or more but less than 20000 MWh.
IE: customers consuming 20000 MWh or more but less than 70000 MWh.
IF: customers consuming 70000 MWh or more but less than 150000 MWh.
IG: customers consuming 150000 MWh or more.
There exist 2 different levels of disaggregation for semestrial and annual prices:
1- Semestrial prices:
These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:
Level 1 prices: prices excluding taxes and levies.
Level 2 prices: prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
Level 3 prices: prices including all taxes and levies.
2- Annual prices:
These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:
Energy and supply: generation, aggregation, balancing energy, supplied energy costs, customer services, after-sales management and other supply costs.
Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs, and meter rental and metering costs.
Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
Capacity taxes: Taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to capacity payments, energy security and generation adequacy; taxes on coal industry restructuring; taxes on electricity distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO2 or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
Nuclear taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the nuclear sector, including nuclear decommissioning, inspections and fees for nuclear installations.
All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous five categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licences and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.
In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculate the single national electricity prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE) but not published because it could be used to re-calculate some confidential values.
Point 6(a) of Annex I related to the sub-components on network prices and to the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges;
Point 5(a) of Annex II related to the sub-components on network prices and to the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges.
Therefore, Italy did not submit the sub-components on network prices and the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges for 2017 and 2018 data.
TAX COMPONENTS
Electricity bills include these general and not recoverable levies (except for VAT which is recoverable for non-household customers), which are components of the transmission/distribution charges, and their rates are defined by ARERA (the Regulatory Authority):
ASOS covering costs related to the support of renewable energies and cogeneration;
ARIM covering other costs for the general interest of the power system and identified by law.
The ASOS and ARIM components are expressed in three fees:
euro cents/withdrawal point per year,
euro cents/kW per year and
euro cents/kWh.
The euro/kW per year fee is not applied to household, while the euro cent/kWh fee is applied for consumption brackets. Resident household customers do not even pay the euro cent/withdrawal point per year fee.
The ASOS component is applied to non-household customers in a different way depending on whether or not they are companies with high electricity consumption. Companies with high electricity consumption pays different ASOS rate depending on the class of consumption.
The ASOS component is made up of different elements, applied separately to the various consumption classes.
The ARIM component is applied in an undifferentiated manner. The ARIM component also consists of several elements covering costs deriving from: decommissioning of nuclear plants, incentives for production attributable to non-biodegradable waste, a special tariff regime granted to RFI (state railways), R&D activities aimed at technological innovation of general interest of the electricity system, tariff protection measures for poor household customers, tariff surcharges for smaller electricity companies, measures and interventions for the promotion of energy efficiency in end uses, interventions in favor of technological and industrial development for energy efficiency, financing of territorial compensation measures.
Starting from 2023, the costs of decommissioning nuclear power plants are financed through the state budget and no longer from the specific component of the ARIM (which was included until 2022).
Starting from October 2021, the Italian Government has implemented extraordinary and temporary measures to contain the exceptional increases in energy prices with the allocation of resources from the State Budget. It was therefore possible to set to zero the ASOS and ARIM component rates for all household users and non-household low voltage users with available power up to 16.5 kW. The components have been set to zero from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2023.
UC3 and UC6:
components concerning the equalization of transmission and distribution costs and service continuity improvements, identified by ARERA. From January 2020 to December 2023, the UC6 component has been set to zero.
Excise duty:
FOR HOUSEHOLD USERS:
For resident consumers with a capacity up to 3 kW
0 €/kWh for consumption up to 150 kWh per month
0.0227 €/kWh for consumption over 150 kWh per month
For consumers with a capacity greater than 3 kW or not resident
0.0227 €/kWh
FOR INDUSTRIAL USERS:
For consumption up to 1200 MWh per month
12.5 €/MWh for the first 200 MWh of consumption during the month
7.5 €/MWh for consumption over 200 MWh
For consumption over 1200 MWh per month
12.5 €/MWh for the first 200 MWh of consumption during the month
VAT
10% of the price including Excise duty.
Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.
Household customers: Data coming from 607 suppliers out of 723 and representing 88% of the household customers' consumption, according to the consumption volume estimated by Terna (Terna is the operator of the national electricity transmission grid and its statistical office is part of the National Statistical System, pursuant to the Prime Minister's Decree of 12 March 2002).
Final non-household customers: Data coming from 616 suppliers out of 723 and representing 83% of the final non-household customers' consumption, according to the consumption volume estimated by Terna.
Whole country
For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2.
For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).
Potential errors:
Error of the provider;
Bad filter over the period;
Bad consideration of new and outgoing customers in the assignment of consumption bands;
Error input in the online questionnaires.
The error in the estimate of average prices is low as the companies that do not usually respond in each edition of the data collection are those of very small size. Companies responding to the survey covers an extremely large share of the electricity market.
Prices are reported in national currency per kWh. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity). Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.
National prices are weighted by sold volumes (for each band individually).
A specific survey is carried out by ARERA. Prices submitted come from suppliers’ billing databases.
Italian electricity prices are published on a semestrial basis on Eurostat's website.
Italian electricity prices are published on a semestrial basis on IEA's price statistics.
Electricity providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the electricity price data within 45 days after the reference period. After arrival, the statistical office checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.
Some suppliers do not respect 45 days deadline or do not submit data at all. Starting from the survey on prices for the first semester of 2022, to increase punctuality and the rate of response, ARERA has adopted a new resolution that gives a penalty to suppliers that do not submit data.
No problem of comparability between countries or regions.
There have been some changes but not enough to warrant the designation of a break in series.
Changes with a very limited impact were made on the general charges applied in the bill.
