Why Electricity Bills Increased Many Times in Winter

The federal government recently allowed regions to increase social electricity consumption standards for the population during the winter period. This primarily concerns owners of private homes with electric boilers. The reason for this decision was numerous complaints from citizens that in 2025 they began to receive exorbitant electricity bills - the amounts in the bills increased to 30-50 thousand rubles per month.

"The December electricity bill was still normal, around 9,000 rubles — this is an average amount for winter, because we have an electric boiler," says Tatyana, a resident of Klin, Moscow Region. "But the January payment shocked us — it turned out that we "burned" almost 18,000 rubles. Although the weather was warm, which means we consumed less. Last year, even in the most severe frosts, our electricity bill never exceeded 12 thousand."

At Mosenergosbyt, where the woman turned for clarification, they just threw up their hands, saying, we have nothing to do with it. Electricity tariffs for the population in the Moscow region were last raised on July 1, 2024, and even then only slightly. Power engineers advised the client to use electricity more economically and to better insulate the house, saying, probably, all the heat is blowing out through the cracks.

"Our house is new and well insulated, so if something is blowing out of somewhere, it's only our money from our wallet. We just didn't know that since January 1, electricity bills for the population have become differentiated almost throughout the country," Tatyana complains.

Indeed, since the beginning of the year, electricity charges have been calculated according to differentiated tariffs, they are called "ranges" and differ in the volume of consumption. The principle is simple: the more electricity you consume, the more you pay for electricity. But it is not at all easy to meet social standards if you have a large house and a large family. Residents of the northern regions of the country suffered first of all, as in February they began to receive electricity bills of 30-50 thousand rubles. However, in the rest of the country, including in the Moscow region, owners of private houses with electric heating systems experienced a sharp increase in electricity charges.

According to the leader of the public movement "People's Garden" Fyodor Mezentsev, the situation with payments for electricity in the Moscow region is not the worst.

"In Kemerovo, the consumption rate in the first range is only 400 kW/h per month, in the second - 600 kW/h. In the Vladimir region, it is even more interesting, there the social norm is calculated depending on the number of people registered in a private house. It turns out that if a person is not registered at a dacha, then he will be deprived of a preferential tariff, because in SNT there, 100 kW/h is supposed to be per plot. This volume of electricity consumption is not enough even for household appliances," the expert says.

The government has been talking about the need to switch to differentiated electricity tariffs for the population for many years. But most people have ignored these words. Many have still not bothered to provide the power grid company with documents showing that their home has an electric heating system, and some, living in rural areas, have not even registered for a rural electricity tariff.

In November last year, the decision to switch to ranges was finally made, and it came into force on January 1, 2025. Now electricity tariffs for the population are divided into 3 ranges: the first (preferential) provides for monthly electricity consumption of up to 3900 kW/h, the second, where the fee is already significantly higher - from 3900 to 6000 kW/h, and the third, where the rates are the same as for business - more than 6000 kW/h. This was done in order to cut off any "freeloaders" who, using preferential tariffs for the population, in fact use electricity for commercial purposes. First of all, this applies to miners.

And yet, is 3900 kW/h a lot or a little for a private residential building?

"Let's count. In winter, at a temperature of minus 20, heating a house of 150 square meters will require 5000-6000 kW/h. It turns out that we are no longer within the preferential consumption standard. And we still need to heat water for household needs, household appliances also consume about 500 kW/h," the expert reasons.

It turns out that along with the underground businessmen, innocent people were punished.

"The government only defined the upper limit of electricity consumption in the first range, and left the lower limit to the discretion of the regions themselves. If local officials decide to reduce social norms to nothing, no one will dissuade them. After all, the center does not allocate funds to compensate for benefits for the population. It is assumed that the difference is covered by tariffs for businesses," says Mezentsev.

The same applies to the latest government regulation, which allows regions to increase consumption volumes for range I in winter. The seasonal coefficient is 1.8 to the maximum consumption value for people living in residential and garden houses with electric heating.

"Everything is at the discretion of local authorities. If you want, introduce it, if you don't want, don't. So don't expect that social norms will be increased everywhere tomorrow," the expert explains.

Published in the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" No. 29469 of February 25, 2025

Newspaper headline: Seven troubles - one light