Système électrique

The consumer’s electricity bill can be broken down into three parts, the size of which varies depending on the year, the country and the type of consumer [1].

• The part related to the cost of supplying electricity concerns the procurement of electricity. This cost is borne by the supplier, a legal entity holding an authorisation. The supplier advises, contracts with and supplies one or more final consumers (retail market) with electricity that was either generated by them or purchased on the European wholesale market. This part covers the costs of the power generation units (energy and capacity), in addition to costs related to the commercialisation of electricity such as invoicing customers, customer service, the supplier’s margin and the traceability of the origin of the electricity generated and - for French suppliers in particular - the cost of the "White certificate" scheme [2].

In France, the incumbent suppliers (EDF and local DSOs) must offer regulated electricity sales tariffs (TRVe) to households as well as micro-enterprises and similar (art. L.337-7 of the French Energy Code). These tariffs are assessed once a year, in February, and can be adjusted in August to take into account changes in the TURPE (French tariff for the use of public electricity networks).

• The part related to the electricity transmission costs enables the different grid operators to cover the costs for operating, developing and maintaining the networks. In France, the cost of managing the infrastructures is covered by the “TURPE” (Tariff for the use of public electricity networks) which is based on five leading principles :
  • Covering costs incurred by the grid operators.
  • The “postage stamp” tariff : a s et t ariff, independently of the distance travelled by the electricity.
  • Tariffs equalisation : for consumers that come under the same profile category, the tariffs applied are the same across the country, regardless to where the consumers and the grid operators are located.
  • Time-of-use tariffs : in certain types of pricing, tariffs differ depending on the season, the day of the week and/or the time of day, to incite customers to limit their consumption during peak hours.
  • Non-discrimination : the tariff paid by the users is not related to their end use of the electricity, but to the costs that have been generated on the network. The part of the bill related to the networks therefore varies depending on the contracted power and the quantity of energy consumed by the household.

The TURPE is used for multiannual tariff periods. The next one is due to start on 1 August 2025.

• The part related to taxes on electricity is made up of value-added tax and several other taxes which vary from one Member State to another. In 2025, French taxes on electricity are composed of two specific taxes :
  • Excise duties on electricity [3] which rose sharply between 2003 and 2016, initially to support the development of electric renewable energies. Since 2017, revenues from this tax have been directly funding the budget of the State. After an initial increase in 2024, the unit price of the excise duty on electricity was raised once more in 2025. It had been reduced to its minimum between 1 February 2022 and 31 January 2024 in compliance with the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD) and in the framework of the French energy tariff shield. In line with the finances bill for 2025, the French government applied a mark-up on the excise duty to fund territorial tariffs equalisation in non-interconnected zones (NIZ) [4].
  • The transmission tariff contribution is used to fund part of the pension schemes for the Gas and Electricity industries workers. Lastly, the usual VAT rate of 20% is applied to the supply and network parts of the bill, but also to the specific taxes on electricity.

To be noted : Electricity bills for consumers are composed of three blocks related to supply, networks and taxes. The parts corresponding to the networks and taxes are the same for market prices and regulated electricity sale tariffs. Only a part of the supply block directly reflects the procurement strategy of each supplier and is partially linked to how the European electricity market is operated.