Norway changed how the price of electricity is calculated in 2022.

Yes, it is very confusing.

Thankfully, Equalizer can help keep you in the lower tiers quite easily.

If you are not already familiar with the tariffs and how they operate, or want more information before setting your Equalizer, go to What can I do to make sure my bills stay lower? or Modified Pricing below.

Setting your Equalizer

You can set your Equalizer to prevent the kilowatt-hours (kWh) from exceeding the tier you want to stay in. If you want to stay lower than Tier 3, for instance, you need to make sure you never use more than 10kWh in a single hour.

The Equalizer regulates only on amperage. Given Amps = Watts / (Volts * √3), and we know your maximum watt limit is 10.000, and your house voltage is 400 (in some cases it will be 230V), we come up with an answer of Amps = 10.000W / (400V * √3) = 14,43A. (This calculation is for houses with 3-phase wiring. If your house is 1-phase, omit the √3 in the calculation.) So we would set the Equalizer to a maximum of 14A to ensure your household, including vehicle charging, never exceeds 10kWh. A house with only 230V wiring would be 25A.

If you are on a 3-phase grid, your charger must be locked on 3-phase in order to ensure the Equalizer can regulate the charger's use across all three phases. Otherwise, the charger might use available amperage on a single phase, and you could then exceed the kWh maximum.

To set your Equalizer, follow these steps:

1. In the Easee app, open the Equalizer.
2. Press Equalizer settings.
   The Settings card slides open.
3. Press Main fuse limit.
   If the % is shown in the slider, press it to show the amount in Amps.
4. Press Edit to change the amount.
5. Select the amperage. The values are scrolled through.
6. Press Save.

Your Equalizer will now help you make sure your bills stay lower.

What can I do to make sure my bills stay lower?

There are many things. You can use various smart home devices to ensure your heating and cooling are running less when you are out all day. You can use the dishwasher at times when you have no other appliances running. Your usage information, such as that in your power company’s app, can help you determine the hours you are using the most power. With that information you can work out a plan to help spread your power consumption out over the day and night.

This does not mean you should give up safety, however. You should not run your washer or dryer while you sleep, for instance.

How does this affect my electric vehicle (EV)?

Of course, the easiest change you can make is to smartly charge your EV. With an Easee charger you can schedule your EV to charge only when the rates are cheapest. And with the Easee Equalizer, you can manually limit the electricity used by the household during peak hours, so that the smart devices (such as your Easee charger) do not use heavy loads (or any electricity at all) during those times when you must use multiple high-demand electrical appliances at the same time. The formula is Watts = Amps * Volts. The voltage of your house is set – some houses are 230V, and some are 400V, and you will need to check which you have. Which means when the Amps are lowered, the Watts (and your bill) are lowered.

Does the type of EV I have matter?

Yes. The larger EVs, that is, EVs with larger batteries and that charge on 3-phase, use many more kWh in the tradeoff of faster charging. If you still require fast charging, you can schedule the EV to charge only at cheaper (e.g., night, weekend) times. Otherwise, you can have it charge slowly, using less power per hour but still fully charging by the time you need it.

You should still manage its charge schedule to make sure it is not charging under peak loads, such as when you are using the washer and dryer, the oven and so forth. Both large and small EVs benefit from using the Easee Charger as well as the Easee Equalizer.

Modified Pricing

Before July 2022, the consumer paid a fixed price – a grid fee – as well as a variable price – the charge for how much electricity is used. The new model alters pricing to encourage consumers to use electricity smarter. There will be greater price differences between day and night use, and weekday versus weekend use. This means it is important to move electricity use across multiple hours rather than within a single hour, it also means moving use to nights and weekends whenever possible.

The grid is currently capable of safely supplying current consumption at its highest levels. However, it is also costly and disruptive to maintain the grid, and increase grid capacity, so smarter use of the current grid will help reduce the possibilities of wide outages and prevent higher costs while improving the infrastructure. This, in turn, is a good environmental decision.

The new pricing method is still based on two components, but these are now referred to as the capacity component (kapasitetsleddet) and the energy component (energileddet). The capacity component is a monthly charge based on your maximum average capacity. The energy portion is the cost per kilowatt hour of the energy used; energy used at night is cheaper than during the day, and for most is cheaper on weekends than weekdays.

How is the capacity component calculated?

The capacity component is the average of the three hours in the past calendar month that you used the most electricity. Each hour used in the average must be on a different day. If the three hours you used the most electricity in the past month were all on the same day, only one of those hours will be used. The next highest use-hours from other days are used in the calculation. While most energy companies are using the calculation of averaging these three hours, where each hour must be on different days of the month, not all energy companies have stated their guidelines, and the government has not announced a specific requirement. So here we are describing the most commonly described method.

This “average high rate” is used in a tier model. An example billing rate might look like this:

It sounds confusing, but like most decisions affecting the economy, the national infrastructure, and ecology, there are so many factors to consider there can not be a simple answer that suits everything.