What changed this week
On 13 May 2026, Ei published a consultation on scrapping its current tariff-design rules, known as EIFS 2022:1. Ei says the government has asked it to remove the existing rules by 30 June and also develop proposals for a new design of effect charges.
In plain bill language, this is about the network part of the electricity bill: the fee paid to the local network company for moving electricity to the home. That fee is separate from the electricity contract itself, and it can be painful because households cannot usually shop around for another local network.
The part that makes this current is the 2027 date. Ei says removing the rules would remove the binding requirements for network-fee design, including the requirement that the fees contain an effect charge from 1 January 2027.
Why effect charges matter
An effect charge is meant to price how much power a customer uses at peak moments, rather than only how many kilowatt-hours the customer uses over the month. The idea is simple enough: if many customers create high peaks at the same time, the network has to cope with that load.
That can make the bill feel different. A household that uses a lot of electricity at once, for example heating, cooking, laundry, charging, or other heavy loads in the same window, can face a different cost pattern than a household with the same monthly use spread more evenly.
Ei's February decision for Göteborg Energi shows why this is awkward in practice. Ei allowed a temporary exemption from the 2027 effect-charge requirement for the company's apartment customers through 31 December 2028, after accepting that those customers currently had limited ability to move electricity use in a way that helps network efficiency.
What is not settled yet
The headline is not that effect charges are dead. Ei's own wording is narrower: the current binding tariff-design rules are proposed to be removed, while Ei has a separate government assignment to look at how a new design of effect charges could be regulated and implemented.
That difference matters. The old 2027 requirement may be taken away, but households could still see network companies use effect-based pricing, pilot tariffs, time-based fees, or later rules once the new work is done. Some network companies have already moved in this direction.
Ei is also working on a separate transparency track. It wants clearer requirements for what network companies publish about network fees, where they publish it, when they publish it, and in what format. Ei says machine-readable fee information should make it easier for households, Ei, and service providers to understand and use the data.
What to watch on the bill
The network bill is worth reading as a moving target, especially where a local network company has already announced a tariff change for 2026 or 2027.
- Effektavgift or effekttariff: those words usually point to a peak-power component.
- Measurement window: some models use the highest hourly or quarter-hourly peaks, while others average several peaks.
- Network fee versus electricity price: a cheaper electricity contract does not change the local network tariff.
- Apartment wording: apartment customers may be treated differently from villas, heat-pump homes, or homes with EV charging.
- Tariff notice: when the company changes the model, the notice is the cleanest place to see whether the bill is shifting from fixed, energy, time, or effect components.
Why the dull part matters
Electricity support, spot prices, and tax cuts get more attention because they feel immediate. Network fees are duller, but they can quietly shape the monthly bill for years. A small change in the way peaks are priced can reward a household that spreads load, punish one that stacks load, or do almost nothing if the local tariff keeps most of the cost somewhere else.
The fairness question is also real. Ei's Göteborg decision says apartment customers in that case had limited flexibility today, but also says those conditions could change as knowledge, technology, and services develop. That is the tension: the grid wants smoother use, while many homes have only so much control over when the big loads happen.
Bottom line
The May 13 remiss does not give households a new bill to calculate today. It does make one thing clearer: the national 2027 effect-charge path is being rewritten while Ei works on a replacement framework. For households whose network company has talked about effect charges, the next tariff notice is likely to matter more than usual.
As of 14 May 2026, the repeal is a consultation proposal. Ei says comments are due by 29 May, the government assignment asks Ei to remove the current rules by 30 June, and the new effect-charge design work is still separate.
Source frame: the 13 May 2026 consultation, 30 June government assignment, proposed repeal of EIFS 2022:1, removal of binding tariff-design requirements, 1 January 2027 effect-charge requirement, 29 May comment deadline, and case number 2026-101721 from Ei's consultation notice on tariff-design rules; transparency work, machine-readable network-fee information, and 2026 work plan from Ei's network-fee publication notice; Göteborg Energi apartment-customer exemption, 1 January 2027 requirement context, 31 December 2028 exemption end date, and flexibility reasoning from Ei's dispensation decision summary. Accessed 14 May 2026. This is educational household-money context, not personalized legal, tax, energy-contract, investment, or financial advice.