Why Two Electricity Bills in Finland: Explained
Two electricity bills in Finland is not a mistake. The law splits grid transfer from supply. Here is how to tell a normal bill from an actual scam.
Why two electricity bills in Finland? The short answer: the law separates transfer from supply. One bill comes from the local grid company that carries the power to your home. The other comes from the retailer you picked, who sells you the electrons themselves. That is how the system is supposed to work. Worry only if you see three bills, or if one of them is a contract you do not remember signing.
Where the two bills come from
Finland opened its electricity market in 1995, when the Electricity Market Act 386/1995 took effect on 1 June 1995. Users above 500 kW moved to competition that November. Households could not choose their supplier until late 1998. The current statute is Electricity Market Act 588/2013, and section 77 requires companies to unbundle grid activity from any other electricity business.
Unbundling means one company cannot put transfer and supply on a single line without itemising them. The same legal entity is not allowed to own the wires and sell the electricity off the same balance sheet. They must be separated, at minimum in the accounts, and usually into distinct companies. That is why the two bills arrive from two different senders and never as one combined invoice.
This is not double billing. One bill covers moving the electricity through the grid. The other covers the price of the electricity itself. Two services, two bills.
The grid company is not open to competition
Mainland Finland has about 77 distribution grid operators listed in the Energiavirasto register. The three largest (Caruna, Elenia, and Helen Sähköverkko) together cover more than 40% of customers. You cannot switch any of them, because each geographic area has exactly one grid company that owns the cables.
The reason is economic. Parallel grids are not worth building. Energiavirasto supervises transfer pricing after the fact in four-year review periods, and the current period runs 2024–2031. The allowed return on capital (WACC) for grid companies in 2025 is 7.61% before tax. Excess returns carry over to the next period and must be returned through lower prices or new investment.
If your transfer bill feels too high, the complaint goes to Energiavirasto, not to the grid company. The only way to change grid operators is to move to an area served by a different one.
The supplier is your only real choice
According to Energiavirasto data, dozens of active retailers operate in the Finnish market. Switching takes minutes. The regulator's 2023 national market report shows that about 15% of households, or a bit over 490,000 customers, switched suppliers that year.
The whole system runs on Fingrid's central Datahub data exchange. It went live on 21 February 2022 and now covers roughly four million metering points in Finland. When you switch suppliers, your consumption history and metering point ID move through Datahub automatically. The only task left to you is picking the retailer.
One detail trips people up: switching your supplier does not change your transfer bill. The grid company stays the same, and its invoice keeps arriving the way it always has. Many customers panic at this point and ask, "why did I still get a transfer bill?" That confusion is what scammers exploit.
Real numbers: a 20,000 kWh detached house
Take an electrically heated detached house in Caruna's area, general transfer tariff 3×25 A, and annual consumption of 20,000 kWh (around 1,667 kWh per month). The 2025 average spot price was about 4.05 cents/kWh (VAT 0%).
| Item | Per month (incl. 25.5% VAT) |
|---|---|
| Transfer base fee | €29.71 |
| Transfer energy fee (5.26 cents/kWh) | €87.69 |
| Electricity tax (2.83 cents/kWh incl. VAT) | €47.18 |
| Electricity supply (spot 5.08 cents/kWh incl. VAT) | €84.68 |
| Total | ~€249/month |
The split: transfer about 47%, electricity tax 19%, and the electricity itself 34%. Over a year, that is roughly €2,990. When you shop around for a supplier (the only piece you can actually move), about a third of the total bill is in play. A realistic saving is 10 to 20 euros a month, assuming the spread between suppliers is half a cent per kWh.
In a small flat using 5,000 kWh a year, the ratio flips. Transfer can take as much as 61% of the bill, because the base fee dominates low consumption. That explains most of the Suomi24 threads where the transfer charge looks like "double the electricity."
When two bills really are a scam
Normal situation: one transfer bill from the grid company, one supply bill from your retailer. Every household in Finland sees this.
Actual scam: two supply bills from two different retailers for the same metering point. The Electricity Market Act bans two simultaneous supply contracts on one meter, but if an old contract is never cancelled, or a new one is created accidentally through phone sales, both companies can invoice at the same time.
Door-to-door and cold-call pitches that promise "everything on one bill" or "a cheaper total price with a combined contract" are almost always the start of a scam. The law does not allow transfer and supply to sit on a single bill without itemisation, so the promise is either a lie or a muddled contract the customer later regrets.
The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV) has had to step in repeatedly. In June 2022, Nordic Green Energy was reprimanded for aggressive and misleading phone sales (decision KKV/1465/14.08.01.05/2021). The commercial purpose of the calls was not clear up front, contracts were framed as "offers" even though verbal consent was already binding, and the company targeted elderly consumers. Back in 2017, KKV also warned Kotimaan Energia, which had received 172 complaints the previous year about contracts created without request.
How to check your own situation
Remember the 14-day right of withdrawal for contracts made by phone or at the door (Consumer Protection Act 38/1978, chapters 6 and 7). If the retailer failed to send written confirmation with the withdrawal terms, the window stretches to 12 months.
Run four checks:
- Log in at palvelut.datahub.fi. The screen shows every contract registered to your metering point. If two suppliers appear there, one of them should not be.
- Look at who sent each bill. One is your grid company (Caruna, Elenia, Helen, or whichever monopoly runs your area), and the other is your retailer. Two senders usually means everything is normal.
- If a call starts with "Your contract is about to expire," ask for the company name and hang up. Grid companies never phone you about supply contracts.
- If you are outside the 14-day window on a contract you never wanted, send a written cancellation and file a report with KKV.
"saan kaksi sähkölaskua. Miten voi olla mahdollista, että sähkön kulutukseni ajanjaksolta maksaa noin 100 €, mutta siirtomaksu on tuplat, eli noin 200 €?!?" (I am getting two electricity bills. How can my electricity consumption for a period cost about €100 while the transfer fee is double that, around €200?)
Suomi24 user Raivon_vallassa (2017)
"Miten sähkön siirto on noin v..tun kallista?" (Why is electricity transfer so damned expensive?)
Vauva.fi discussion
The answer in both cases is the same: this is not a scam. It is how the bill is structured. The base fee makes transfer the bigger line when consumption is low. If the bills come from two retailers, though, Datahub will clear it up in minutes.
Finnish electricity users should welcome two bills
Two bills may look clumsy at first, but the setup is cheaper for the consumer than a single-company monopoly would be. The supply portion, about a third of the bill, competes among dozens of retailers, and that keeps prices honest. Without unbundling, one company could quietly subsidise its retail arm with hidden grid income, and no itemisation would show it.
If you want to criticise the system, aim at Energiavirasto's WACC supervision, not at the two-bill structure. Two electricity bills save consumers money. That should be reason enough.
Sources
- Sähkömarkkinalaki 588/2013
- Sähkömarkkinalaki 386/1995
- Energiavirasto — pricing regulation (WACC 7.61% 2025, 2024–2031 period)
- Energiavirasto — FAQ (geographic monopoly)
- Fingrid Datahub — launch 21.2.2022, ~4M metering points
- Caruna general transfer 3×25 A price list (1.9.2024)
- Verohallinto — electricity tax
- KKV — Nordic Green Energy decision 9.6.2022 (KKV/1465/14.08.01.05/2021)
- Kuluttaja — Kotimaan Energia 2017 warning
- Consumer Protection Act 38/1978
- KKV — electricity phone sales & 14-day right of withdrawal
- Pörssisähkön keskihinta 2025
- Energiavirasto — national report on electricity and gas markets 2023
- Energiateollisuus ry — electricity grid companies (77 distribution operators in mainland Finland)