New research – a complete analysis of 3883 energy tariffs around the world – has measured the price of electricity in 230 countries. Designed and compiled by an experienced team of researchers at Cable.co.uk, working across six months, the data set is the most complete compilation of global energy tariffs to date.
Clusters of more expensive countries in which to buy electricity tended to be in small island nations where electricity is harder to generate and/or there are no large scale power stations.
Conversely, the cheapest places in the world to buy electricity tend to be countries where either oil and gas prices are very cheap (I.E. countries which produce fossil fuels on a large scale), or where household electricity usage is very small and therefore tends not to require a lot of expensive infrastructure.
Romania ranks 103th, with an average price of KW/h of USD 0.134, the cheapest KW/h – USD 0.072 and the most expensive KW/h of USD 0.190.
All the Eastern European nations bar two sit in the cheaper half of the table. Serbia (USD 0.061) is the cheapest in the region, followed by Poland (USD 0.070), Moldova (USD 0.085) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (USD 0.085). Slovenia is the most expensive in Eastern Europe, with one KWh costing USD 0.173 on average.
The cheapest electricity in Western Europe is in Norway, where the average price of one KWh is USD 0.093. The Åland Islands (USD 0.118) is the second cheapest in Western Europe followed by Andorra (USD 0.127). Denmark is the most expensive in the region at USD 0.350. The UK (USD 0.251) is the 5th most expensive in Western Europe and comes 190th in the world for cheap electricity.
Asian (excl. Near East) nations make up less than a fifth of the top 20 cheapest countries for electricity, with none of them reaching the top ten. Bhutan (USD 0.036) is the cheapest, followed by Mongolia (USD 0.041) and Iran (USD 0.044). The most expensive of the Asian countries is Japan (USD 0.211) followed by Singapore (USD 0.195), both of which are more than the global average price per KWh of USD 0.165.
Two of the three Baltic nations included in the study sit inside the less expensive half of the list. Estonia is the cheapest of the three with one KWh costing an average of USD 0.125 and sits in 94th place in the world, while in Latvia one KWh costs USD 0.154 on average. Lithuania sits in the most expensive half of the list with an average of USD 0.173, above the global average of USD 0.165.
Most Caribbean nations are in the more expensive half of the study results. Curaçao is the most expensive in the Caribbean with an average of USD 0.419, while an average one KWh in Puerto Rico is eight times cheaper at USD 0.049. The Caribbean consists of island nations where electricity generation tends to be more difficult.
The cheapest electricity tariffs in Central America can be found in Mexico, where one KWh costs USD 0.052 on average. Prices are somewhat steeper in Costa Rica (USD 0.110), in Panama (USD 0.149) and Belize (USD 0.194). The most expensive country in Central America is El Salvador, where an average one kWh costs USD 0.229.
A number of CIS countries are among the very cheapest in the world for electricity and they all sit well inside the cheaper half of the table. The region is the cheapest in the world for electricity overall, averaging USD 0.049 per KWh. Kyrgyzstan is fourth-cheapest in the world with an average of USD 0.017, ahead of Russia in 22nd place (USD 0.050). The most expensive in the region is Georgia, which still manages to be 61st cheapest in the world (USD 0.088).
Kuwait is the cheapest country in the Near East region and 10th cheapest in the world, with one KWh costing an average of USD 0.033. Qatar and Yemen (USD 0.036) are jointly second cheapest, very closely followed by Iraq (USD 0.039). The most expensive electricity in the region can be found in Cyprus, where the average price of one kWh is USD 0.208.
All of the six North African countries are in the cheapest half of the table. Libya is both the cheapest in the region and in the world at USD 0.007. The most expensive in the region is Morocco (USD 0.131), which comes in at 100th cheapest in the world.
The United States is the cheapest country in the region (USD 0.109), followed by Canada (USD 0.124) and Greenland (0.250). The most expensive is Bermuda (USD 0.342), more than three times as expensive as the United States.