Calculating your gas bill

How much does a cubic meter of gas cost? How can I save on gas costs? These are two questions that you certainly asked yourself when you tried to calculate your gas costs. Calculating gas costs is not as hard one might think, because the invoice that the supplier sends is basically composed of four items:

  • Expenditure for natural gas (within which there is the price for "gas raw material component"); 
  • Expenditure for transport and meter management; 
  • Expenditure for system charges; 
  • Taxes. 

In the free market, we can choose offers with a lower price for the gas raw material component, the only component under the supplier's control. The others, however, are established by the Autorità per l'Energia (ARERA) and by the state (which decides on taxes).

Expenditure on natural gas

The item "expenditure on natural gas" includes the amounts invoiced for the various activities carried out by the seller to supply natural gas to the end customer. The most important part is the price of the gas raw material component, which represents approximately 100% of your gas bill. For example, by subscribing to the Enel Flex Gas offer, the price of the gas raw material component is blocked for 12 months.

Cost for energy transport and meter management

The other major component of the gas bill is the transport and meter management costs, which represent almost 20% of the bill and encompass amounts invoiced for various activities that allow sellers to deliver natural gas to end customers. This part of the tariff is updated quarterly by ARERA, includes the components of the distribution tariff and measures the transportation, commercial quality, equalisation components and any "municipal fees" component, to cover any extra costs arising from increases in the distribution concession fee.

Expenditure for system charges

Among the expenditure items making up the gas bill, further to those already mentioned relating, for example, to meter costs and costs for management of the energy transmission network (essential elements regardless of customer consumption), there are also system charges applied by all sales companies based on the values set by the Autorità di Regolazione per Energia, Reti e Ambiente (ARERA). These charges are incurred in pursuance of the general interest and for the functioning of the electricity system. Expenditures relating to system charges consist of a fixed and a variable part. The variable part is proportional to the customer's consumption, whereas the fixed part is applied in the bill in monthly instalments, as shown below:

  • Energy Share (€/Smc) with AGGREGATE detail of Energy Savings (RE), (UG1) Compensation for Marketing Costs (UG2 Var), Recovery of Arrears for Operators of Last Resort Services (UG3), gas allowance (GS) paid only by condominiums for domestic use
  • Fixed Share (€/year) with details of the Compensation of Marketing Costs component (Fixed UG2).   

Gas taxes

Lastly, the bill shows consumption taxes, regional surcharges, and VAT.

The excise duty applies to the quantity of gas consumed; regional surcharges, on the other hand, apply to the quantity of gas consumed and are established independently by each region, within the limits established by law.

VAT is treated separately: for civil and domestic use, you pay 10% VAT for the first 480 cubic meters of gas you consume annually, and 22% on the remaining consumption and on fixed quotas. For industrial uses, however, the VAT is set at 22%.

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