The report describes the main cost items associated with the consumption of natural gas and electricity in Italy in recent years, with a particular focus on 2022 and with a pre-final estimation for 2023. The total cost thus estimated represents an approximation of the national bill, and it is also expressed in terms of average unit cost (in euro cent/Scm for natural gas, in euro cent/kWh for electricity).
The main components of the national bill are the costs for wholesale exchanges of the gas and electricity commodities, the costs for transmission/distribution/measurement services, the general system charges and the taxes.
In 2022, the consumption of natural gas led to a total expenditure of approximately 127.7 billion euros (including approximately 20.5 billion euros for taxes) with an estimate around 48.7 billion euros for 2023 (including 10.2 billion euros for taxes); this value corresponds to 3.7 times the average total expenditure in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of incidence, the most significant part is attributed to the commodity component, with a share of almost 75.7% in 2022; as far as the other items are concerned, taxes accounted for approximately 16. 4%, transmission and distribution services for 5.2%, and general charges for 2.6%. The average unit cost, obtained as the ratio between the total cost and the final national consumption of natural gas, is around 189.85 euro cent/Scm for 2022 and 78.15 euro cent/Scm for 2023, including taxes, to be compared with an average of 48.03 euro cent/Scm in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
As regards electricity consumption, in 2022 the national bill was approximately 131.5 billion euros (including approximately 19.9 billion euros for taxes), against an estimate of 70.9 billion euros for 2023 (including approximately 11.9 billion euros for taxes); the value for 2022 corresponds to 2.5 times the total expenditure in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. In terms of incidence, the energy component accounted for 72.7% in 2022 (59.1% in 2023); the other items accounted for 15.2% (taxes), 6.8% (general system charges) and 5.3% (transmission and distribution services). The average unit cost, obtained as the ratio between the total cost and the final energy consumption, thus rose to 44.5-euro cent/kWh in 2022 (23.9 euro cent/kWh in 2023), including taxes, to be compared with an average of 17.9 euro cent /Scm in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.