Two identical offices. Fifty people each. Same computers, same lighting. One in Helsinki, one in Berlin.
Last updated November 5, 2026 · 6 min read · Data: Eurostat H1 2026
At a glance
- Cheapest offices: Finlandia (€0.093/kWh), Iceland, Norway — nuclear, hydro, geothermal.
- Most expensive: Irlandia (€0.267), Cypr, Italy — gas-dependent islands and peninsulas.
- A 50-person office pays up to €13,560/year more in Berlin than in Helsinki for the same electricity.
- Three actions with numbers: renegotiate at contract end (−20–30%), match tariff to load profile (−5–10%), LED retrofit (−5–15% of total bill).
Co zachowujesz
Switching a Berlin office to a Finnish-linked tariff≈ €13,560 / rok
Effort required~1 week of broker calls, brak wydatków inwestycyjnych
ZemstaFirst invoice
Take the Eurostat business data for January–June 2026 and run the numbers:
- Helsinki office: 120 MWh × €0.0928 = €11,136 per year
- Berlin office: 120 MWh × €0.2058 = €24,696 per year
The Berlin office pays €13,560 more for the same electricity: €271 per employee per year. Move the office to Dublin and the bill hits €31,992.
The gap is structural: Podatki, grid design and generation mix. Here is the full ranking.
The ranking: business and household prices, Styczeń–czerwiec 2026
Business prices are for a consumer using 500–2,000 MWh per year, excluding VAT and recoverable taxes (the level most SMEs actually pay). Household prices include all taxes and VAT. Źródło: Eurostat nrg_pc_204 and nrg_pc_205, retrieved 5 Listopad 2026.
| Rank | Kraj | Business €/kWh | Household €/kWh | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Finlandia | 0.0928 | 0.2694 | Nuclear and hydro: Europe’s cheapest |
| 2 | Iceland | 0.1137 | 0.2076 | Hydro and geothermal |
| 3 | Norway | 0.1166 | 0.1993 | Hydro surplus; households track spot prices |
| 4 | Szwecja | 0.1177 | 0.3062 | Nuclear and hydro; taxes push households high |
| 5 | Portugalia | 0.1273 | 0.2367 | High wind and solar share |
| 6 | Denmark | 0.1303 | 0.2375 | Cheap wind; taxes take 49% of household bills |
| 7 | Hiszpania | 0.1336 | 0.2509 | Iberian market, renewables |
| 8 | Luxembourg | 0.1353 | 0.2023 | Negative net tax share |
| 9 | Malta | 0.1358 | 0.1268 | Household prices state-capped |
| 10 | Latvia | 0.1367 | 0.2415 | Hydro-heavy |
| 11 | Estonia | 0.1399 | 0.2118 | Oil shale share falling |
| 12 | Bulgaria | 0.1452 | 0.1341 | Regulated prices, nuclear base load |
| 13 | Slovenia | 0.1463 | 0.2118 | Nuclear plus hydro; fell 16.6% rok po roku |
| 14 | Francja | 0.1567 | 0.2485 | Nuclear fleet: 13% below EU average |
| 15 | Croatia | 0.1610 | 0.1816 | Hydro, regulated tariffs |
| 16 | Czechia | 0.1671 | 0.2884 | Coal and nuclear, high levies |
| 17 | Greece | 0.1702 | 0.2401 | Gas-to-renewables transition |
| 18 | Liechtenstein | 0.1752 | 0.2988 | Import-dependent |
| 19 | Lithuania | 0.1760 | 0.2162 | Grid reconfiguration |
| 20 | Romania | 0.1854 | 0.2836 | Caps ended July 2025; prices jumped 15.4% |
| 21 | Belgium | 0.1902 | 0.3575 | Nuclear shutdowns plus high household levies |
| 22 | Austria | 0.1918 | 0.3260 | Household prices rose 34.3% rok po roku |
| 23 | Slovakia | 0.1937 | 0.1985 | Nuclear-heavy, high network costs |
| 24 | Holandia | 0.2027 | 0.2440 | Negative net tax share, yet above the EU average |
| 25 | Niemcy | 0.2058 | 0.3618 | High levies and grid fees; eased in 2026 |
| 26 | Polska | 0.2070 | 0.2999 | Coal; household caps ended 2026 |
| 27 | Hungary | 0.2183 | 0.1139 | Cheapest households via caps; businesses pay more |
| 28 | Włochy | 0.2253 | 0.3142 | Import-dependent gas fleet |
| 29 | Cypr | 0.2306 | 0.2688 | Island grid, imported fuels |
| 30 | Irlandia | 0.2666 | 0.3871 | Gas-dependent island, constrained grid, worst in both bands |
| — | Średnia UE | 0.1800 | 0.2832 | Weighted by consumption |
Read both columns together. Hungary looks cheap until you spot the split: capped household rates at €0.1139, business rates 92% higher. Denmark’s wind is cheap for businesses, then taxes nearly double it for households. The countries punishing offices hardest, Irlandia, Cyprus and Italy, share one trait: islands or peninsulas dependent on imported gas, weakly connected to cheaper neighbours.
Dwa kraje brakujące w tabeli
Eurostat stopped collecting UK and Swiss price data, so they get their own line:
- United Kingdom: DESNZ puts small/medium businesses (500–1,999 MWh/year, same band) at 27.67p/kWh including the Climate Change Levy in Q2 2026: mniej więcej €0.33/kWh at the ECB rate of 5 Listopad 2026 (€1.1991/£), worse than Ireland. The smallest band pays 38.36p, about €0.46.
- Switzerland: regulator ElCom reports a median household tariff of 27.7 cents/kWh for 2026, O nas €0.30/kWh (ECB: €1.0893/CHF). Businesses off regulated tariffs land lower; hydro-rich cantons start near 22 cents.
Co zachowujesz: three actions with numbers attached
- Renegotiate at contract end. Businesses rolling off 2022–2023-vintage contracts save 20–30% in the UK renewal market, per comparison data covering thousands of renewals. Ciągnij 12 months of half-hourly consumption data first; quotes without it are guesses.
- Match the tariff to your load profile. A study of 7,500+ UK businesses (Energy Efficiency Science, Springer) found most SMEs benefiting from time-of-use or real-time tariffs save under 5%, z 10% a practical ceiling. If a salesperson promises 25% from load shifting alone, ask for their dataset. The 5–10% lives in shifting flexible loads: EV charging, pre-cooling, batch processes.
- Fix the lighting, then check the meter class. Lighting runs 15–20% of office electricity (US DOE). Measured LED retrofits cut it 27–29% (PNNL), do 75% with controls (LBNL): expect 5–15% off the total bill. Also check that contracted capacity matches actual peak demand; oversizing inflates fixed costs, and UK statistics show the smallest consumers pay a 45% per-kWh premium over the all-business average.
Metodologia
Business prices: Eurostat nrg_pc_205, band 500–2,000 MWh/year, tax level X_VAT (excludes VAT and recoverable taxes). Household prices: nrg_pc_204, band 2,500–5,000 kWh/year, tax level I_TAX (all taxes and VAT). Both cover January–June 2026, the latest published semester, in EUR as reported. Retrieved 5 Listopad 2026 via the Eurostat API. Cross-checked against the Eurostat news release of 8 May 2026 and the EnergyBoard H2 2025 ranking (27/27 countries match exactly), plus France’s SDES. UK and Swiss figures come from DESNZ and ElCom; neither country reports to Eurostat.
Źródła
- Eurostat, Statystyki cen energii elektrycznej (nrg_pc_204/205), 5 Listopad 2026: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?tytuł=Electricity_price_statistics
- Komunikat prasowy Eurostatu, non-household prices H2 2025, 8 May 2026: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20260508-2
- Komunikat prasowy Eurostatu, household prices 2025, 5 May 2026: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20260505-1
- EnergyBoard, H2 2025 cross-check: https://energyboard.eu/en/business-electricity-prices/
- SDES (Francja), electricity prices 2025: https://www.statistiques.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/prix-de-lelectricite-en-france-et-dans-lunion-europeenne-en-2025
- DESNZ, UK business prices by size (QEP 3.4.2, 29 Wrześeń 2026): https://ukchargingsolutions.co.uk/data/business-electricity-prices
- ElCom/Swissgrid, Swiss tariffs 2026: https://swissgrid.ch/en/home/about-us/company/electricity-price.html
- Energy Efficiency Science 9 (2016), tariff-switching study: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-015-9404-9
- US DOE/FEMP, LED retrofit case study: https://www.energy.gov/cmei/femp/espc-enable-project-us-department-energy-headquarters-reduces-lighting-energy-use-50
- ECB reference rates, 5 Listopad 2026: https://api.frankfurter.dev/v1/latest?base=GBP&symbols=EUR
Następny przeciek do naprawy
Carla Lavigne jest redaktorką działu Green Ops w mycompanyisgreen.org i koleżanką, która przynosi kalkulator na audyt.












