Taiwan's summer power bills to soar as much as 27%

台灣夏季電費最高漲幅27%

Summer electricity price scheme kicks in on June 1


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan's summer electricity pricing scheme commences on Wednesday (June 1) and will be in place until September 30, with prices rising as much as 27%.

Taiwan's summer electric pricing system was first implemented in 1989. Every year, the system runs from June 1-Oct. 1.

Regarding a public concern about the spike in power bills in the summer months, Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) explained in a press release that because "electricity consumption" and "electricity prices" both increase at the same time, people tend to feel that electricity bills increase greatly in the summer. Taipower pointed out that the main cost comes from a substantial increase in power consumption during the summer months.

For example, in 2021, the average electrical consumption per household was 352 kWh. During the non-summer months, this was 312 kWh, but this increased to 433 kWh during the summer, a 40% increase.

Therefore, during that year, the average monthly electricity bill increased by NT$459, of which NT$335 or 73% came from the increase in consumption, while only NT$124 came from the higher summer price rate.

Taipower further explained that in general, the electricity pricing scheme for households is divided into six tiers based on usage. In the first tier, if a household uses 120 kWh or less, their price rate is the same year-round. However, higher usage levels can see prices increase from 13% to as much as 27%.

According to Taipower statistics, 3.68 million households consume less than 120 kWh per month and therefore will not be affected by the price hike. Another 4.97 million households consume about 121 to 330 kWh of electricity per month.

For the latter, this will only represent an increase of 0.28 per kWh. The price rise mainly affects users who consume more than 1,000 kWh per month, accounting for about 2.8% of overall users.

As the weather gets hotter and hotter, electricity consumption will inevitably increase. Taipower encourages the public to save electricity and implement energy savings and carbon reduction measures in their daily lives to save money and protect the environment.