Ellevio Drops the Demand Charge — How Your Bill Changes from June 1, 2026
On March 13, 2026 the Swedish government scrapped the requirement that all grid companies must charge a demand-based fee (effektavgift). Ellevio — Sweden's second-largest grid operator with around 960,000 customers — was the first major player to act.
What changes on June 1, 2026?
From June 1, 2026 Ellevio removes the demand charge for single-family houses, townhouses, holiday homes and business customers with main fuses up to 63 A. The familiar two-component model returns:
1. Fixed monthly fee based on main fuse size 2. Variable transmission charge per kWh consumed
The third component — the criticized demand charge based on your three highest hourly peaks each month — disappears entirely.
How the demand charge worked (and why people hated it)
The demand charge was introduced in January 2025 and penalized customers who drew heavy power simultaneously. If you ran the EV charger, the oven and the dryer during the same hour, your peak went up — and so did your bill.
For EV owners it was doubly frustrating: a cheap nighttime spot-price hour could still end up expensive if you hit your peak. Villa owners, housing associations and EV drivers pushed back hard — the model was hard to understand and created perverse incentives.
What about the other grid companies?
- Vattenfall Eldistribution has paused its planned demand-charge rollout in autumn 2026, pending new guidelines from the Swedish Energy Market Inspectorate.
- E.ON had planned to introduce demand charges on September 1, 2026 — status now uncertain after the government decision.
- The Energy Market Inspectorate will present a new grid-tariff model proposal by April 2027.
A caveat: base grid fees rose in January 2026 — Vattenfall +14%, Ellevio +10%. Removing the demand charge doesn't automatically lower your total bill.
What this means for SpotPris users
Good news — your spot-price savings just got cleaner:
- No more trade-offs. Previously you had to spread loads across hours to avoid peak penalties. Now you can run the EV charger, heat pump and dishwasher during the same cheap spot-price hour at no extra cost.
- Night charging gets simpler. With smart load management at home, you can charge the car at full power during the cheapest hours without worrying about demand peaks.
- Spot price becomes the only time dimension that matters — at least until the Inspectorate presents its new model in 2027.
How to maximize the win
1. Check tomorrow's hourly prices just after 14:00 — they're published on [spotpris.today](https://spotpris.today/se). 2. Schedule EV charging, hot water and laundry during the three to five cheapest hours. 3. Enable price alerts so you don't miss the really low hours (e.g. below 20 öre/kWh).
Ellevio will communicate the exact new tariffs in mid-May 2026. We'll update the blog when the details are out.