Official electricity price statistics are based on surveys of firms. The data are aggregated, and price averages are computed using the size of each firm as weights. The statistics are reported for several electricity consumption bands as prices typically decline with the level of electricity consumption because of volume discounts.

Our data are collected from the latest price offers of the largest energy providers in each country. Two important differences arise because of the different methodologies:

1. Because the data are weighed by firm size, the official data overrepresents large firms within a given electricity consumption band. And, since the bands are quite wide and larger firms pay lower prices, the reported average is less than what most firms in that band pay. In our methodology, we avoid that bias by directly reporting the prices paid at a certain fixed level of electricity consumption.

2. The official statistics reflect the current and past prices. The reason is that many firms pay prices that were contractually agreed upon months and sometimes a year or more into the past. In our methodology, we report the most recent prices, i.e. what a firm would pay if it signed a contract now.

Let us note that governments are right in reporting weighed averages of prices agreed upon now and in the past. That is what firms do actually pay now. It is different, however, than the price that a new contract would have, something we aim to figure out and report.