ENECHANGE Ltd. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & CEO: Yohei Kiguchi, PhD) announced that on 20 December 2023 it updated the electricity bill simulation on its electricity and gas comparison website ENECHANGE for households. This update improves the breakdown display of simulation results and adds options for filtering. With this update, users can now compare and select an energy plan from a broad array of options that better suits their personal usage.

Background

In 2022, the fuel cost due to the situation in Ukraine had a significant impact on the profitability of energy companies. Now, as the environment improves, energy companies have resumed customer acquisition efforts, and the structures of the energy tariffs proposed are diversifying. The number of tariffs that are market-linked or have their own fuel cost adjustment has increased, making the tariff system even more complex and increasing the number of variables at which consumers compare electricity suppliers and tariffs.

The Guidelines for Electricity Retail Sales published by the Government of Japan (*1) state that it is desirable to provide easy-to-understand information on the mechanism of fuel cost adjustment, etc. and the risk of price fluctuations, and to compare the price with other price tariffs. In addition, the Government of Japan is also considering stipulating in the Enforcement Regulations of the Electricity Law that, if retail tariffs fluctuate according to fuel or electricity prices, retailers are required to explain this, how the fluctuation amount is calculated, and whether there is a ceiling or not. (*2)

*1 https://www.emsc.meti.go.jp/info/guideline/pdf/20230401001b.pdf
*2 https://www.meti.go.jp/shingikai/enecho/denryoku_gas/denryoku_gas/pdf/064_08_00.pdf

Simulation updates

Two updates were made to the electricity bill simulation of ENECHANGE on 20 December 2023.

1. Detailing simulation results
Items that were previously displayed together as ‘electricity bills’ are now displayed separately as a breakdown of ‘basic charge/minimum charge’, ‘electricity volume charge’, ‘fuel cost adjustment amount, etc., fuel cost adjustment unit price’, and ‘renewable energy levy’. This allows the user to check the structure of the tariff. By displaying the fuel cost adjustment unit price applied in the calculation, the basis for calculating electricity bills is made transparent. (*3)

As before, discounts and benefits are also broken down separately. The total value of the simulation results is the total price including variable prices.

*3. Our simulations reflect the latest fuel cost adjustment unit prices for 12 months.

2. “Non market-linked plans” and “No electricity price adjustment based on market prices” added to the refinement filter

About “Non market-linked plans”
Market-linked plans do not have a fixed unit price and the electricity price is determined every 30 minutes in conjunction with the trading price (i.e. market price) on the Japan Electric Power Exchange (JEPX). The ‘Non market-linked plans’ filter allows customers who want to use a simple electricity plan with low price fluctuations to narrow down their search and compare non market-linked plans.

About “No electricity price adjustment based on market prices”
Many power companies have adopted a fuel cost adjustment system, which reflects fluctuations in fuel prices for electricity generation in electricity prices. Some new energy companies do not have their own energy generation resources but procure electricity from JEPX, and have therefore introduced an adjustment charge that reflects the market price of JEPX in electricity prices.

The calculation method differs between energy companies, but the most common format is to calculate the average market unit price over a certain period and charge an additional amount if the price is above the standard, or charge a reduced amount if the price is below the standard. While there are significant benefits when market prices are falling, there is also a risk of higher electricity bills when market prices soar. The ‘No electricity price adjustment based on market prices’ filter allows consumers who want to choose a plan that is not affected by market prices to narrow down and compare plans with no electricity price adjustment.

ENECHANGE will be further updated in 2024 and beyond to provide customers with a solution that is easier to understand and allows them to select the most suitable energy company and tariff plan.

The company will continue to promote Green Transformation (GX) through projects that contribute to the decarbonization of the electricity grid, with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality in 2050.

ENECHANGE, an electricity and gas comparison platform

Through the operation of a platform with approximately 2 million monthly unique users and 56 partner electricity and gas companies (*4), it provides the most popular (*5) platform in terms of the number of users of energy bill review websites, which allows users to compare and switch electricity and gas all in one place. The service was launched following the deregulation of electricity in 2016 and gas in 2017.

ENECHANGE Division: ene_sales@enechange.co.jp
URL: https://enechange.jp/

*4. Total number of affiliated electricity and gas companies as at end-December 2021 (excluding duplicated households and businesses).
*5. Refers to the number of UUs by six electricity bill review services (as of November 2023, according to Dockpit).

ENECHANGE Ltd.

ENECHANGE is an energy technology company that promotes a net zero society through digital technology with the mission of Changing Energy For A Better World. We offer services based on data utilisation in the field of the 4Ds of Energy: Deregulation, Digitalization, Decarbonization, and Decentralization. Our company’s roots come from an energy data lab at the University of Cambridge, UK, a country where liberalisation is mature. ENECHANGE has a UK subsidiary, ENECHANGE Innovation Limited, as well as a global network and analytical technology for energy data.

URL: https://enechange.co.jp/en/

■For inquiries
ENECHANGE Ltd.
pr@enechange.co.jp