Grid Tariffs Are Reshaping Electricity Bills – Starting in Sweden 

We recently analyzed household consumption data from spring 2025 together with one of our Swedish customers, Telinet Energi, and one thing stood out clearly:

For many households, the electricity bill is no longer mainly a question of how much electricity they use. It is increasingly a question of when they use it.

How European Electricity Bills Are Structured

Europe is a deregulated market where electricity bills consist of three main components: energy supply, network charges, and taxes/levies. The current levels in Europe are:

• Energy Supply: 55–65% (highest in Southern Europe and lowest in DACH)
• DSO charges: 25–33% (highest in DACH, lowest in Southern Europe)
• Taxes: 10–12%

Grid Tariffs Are Shifting from Volume-Based to Demand-Based Pricing

That matters because grid tariffs are shifting from volume-based logic to demand-based logic. A few high-load moments can now have a disproportionate effect on the total bill. Count on the share of network charges outpacing the other categories.

Real Household Savings: What the Telinet Data Shows

In the dataset from Telinet Energi, a medium-sized house of 125 m² with an EV and annual consumption of roughly 12,800 kWh in Ellevio’s grid SE3 area saves ~3,000 SEK per year through optimization for DSO demand charge only.

On top of that, an advanced HEMS solution accounts for electricity prices as well. For a fully electrified home, with EV, heat pump, battery, and PV, the combined savings potential from optimizing both electricity price and demand charges reached 9,700 SEK per year. This is just savings generated behind the meter for the consumers; there is more to tap into by trading with flexibility at the front of the meter with Emulate‘s Monetize product.

Why Automation, Not Manual Management, Is the Answer

The important point is not that households should start micromanaging their homes around tariff structures. It is the opposite.

As pricing becomes more complex, the case for automation becomes stronger.

How a HEMS Turns Pricing Complexity into Background Savings

This is where a HEMS makes a huge difference: as an optimization layer that responds to both kWh and kW signals in the background, without asking people to change their routines or compromise comfort.

Even if the policy details continue to move, the direction is clear: electricity has become a timing problem, not just a volume problem.

Thanks to Telinet Energi for sharing the data and helping ground this in real household behavior rather than theory.

Read more about our full facility optimization: https://emulate.energy/the-benefits-of-whole-home-optimization-for-demand-response/