When Electricity Is Cheapest

What a kilowatt-hour really costs in Tartu right now — the market price with the Elektrilevi network fee, the state charges and VAT added in — and the cheapest window to run the washing, the boiler, the sauna or the car charger.

About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Tartu and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

When Electricity Is Cheapest

Every practical guide to moving to Tartu gives the same warning: ask what heating the flat has, and ask to see last winter's bills before you sign. This page is the arithmetic behind that advice — what a kilowatt-hour actually costs here, hour by hour, with the network fee, the state charges and VAT already added in.

The market price you see quoted in the news is only part of the bill. On an ordinary summer day it is the smaller part.

This only matters on a variable-price contract

If you have a fixed-price contract, you pay the same for a kilowatt-hour whenever you use it, and moving the washing to the middle of the night changes nothing on that part of your bill. This page is for people whose price follows the market hour by hour. Your contract type is on your electricity bill. The network charges below apply either way.

Your connection

4.53 € a month standing charge on this package, whatever you use and whenever you use it. That is the apartment rate, for a flat whose share of the building's main fuse is 16 A or under.

The usual apartment package: one price by day, a cheaper one at night and all weekend. Elektrilevi suggests it for homes using 350–2600 kWh a year.

Your supplier’s markup

senti/kWh

Excluding VAT, as suppliers quote it.

9.5 senti

Your price right now

Among today’s cheaper hours

12:25

Right now

Night rate in force · Võrk 2 (flat)

What makes up that price

Electricity itself (the market price): 2.4 senti
Network transfer, nightElektrilevi. Weekdays 22:00–07:00, and all of Saturday, Sunday and every public holiday.: 4.4 senti
Renewable energy chargeTaastuvenergia tasu, set by Elering. Unchanged for 2026.: 1.0 senti
Security of supply chargeVarustuskindluse tasu, new from 1 January 2026. Elering reviews it by 1 June and 1 December each year.: 0.9 senti
Electricity excise duty2.10 € per MWh. The rise planned for 1 May 2026 was cancelled by the Riigikogu.: 0.3 senti
Balancing capacity chargeTasakaalustamisvõimsuse kulu, new for 2026 — on your electricity seller's bill, not the network one. Falls to 2.97 € per MWh from 1 January 2027.: 0.5 senti
All in: 9.5 senti

Every figure above includes 24% VAT. All of these charges are published without VAT, so it is added here — your bill adds it to the total the same way.

Electricity is never free here

Even if the market price fell to zero — which happens — a kilowatt-hour on this connection would still cost 7.1 senti at night and 10.2 senti by day, plus the standing monthly charge. The market price is the part that moves; the rest is there whatever the hour.

Find the cheapest window

Pick a job and adjust the kWh to your own machine. The tool searches the prices published so far and shows the cheapest stretch long enough to finish it — costed on the whole price, the network rate in force at that hour included, not on the market price alone.

What are you running?

Energy it uses (kWh)

Starting figure: a 60° cotton programme in a typical 7 kg machine. A new A-rated machine on its eco programme uses about half this; an old machine on a hot wash can use twice. It is a typical figure, not a measurement of yours. Change it to match yours.

Runs for 2 hours.

Cheapest window

13:45–15:45 · 0.10 €

The same job in the dearest window: 0.22 €. That is 0.12 € less.

Hour by hour

Hour	Price	Hour by hour
00:00	11.1 senti
01:00	9.6 senti
02:00	9.6 senti
03:00	9.7 senti
04:00	9.9 senti
05:00	10.0 senti
06:00	10.1 senti
07:00	10.2 senti
08:00	10.3 senti
09:00	10.1 senti
10:00	10.0 senti
11:00	9.8 senti
12:00	9.7 senti
13:00	9.1 senti
14:00	8.1 senti
15:00	8.1 senti
16:00	8.7 senti
17:00	9.6 senti
18:00	11.1 senti
19:00	14.5 senti
20:00	16.4 senti
21:00	17.0 senti
22:00	15.7 senti
23:00	16.6 senti

<section><h2 class="text-lg/7 font-medium text-gray-950">Hour by hour — Võrk 2 (flat)</h2><div class="mt-3 overflow-x-auto"><table class="w-full text-left text-sm/6"><thead class="text-gray-500"><tr><th class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium">Hour</th><th class="py-2 font-medium">Price</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">00:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">11.1 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">01:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.6 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">02:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.6 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">03:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.7 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">04:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.9 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">05:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">10.0 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">06:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">10.1 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">07:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">10.2 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">08:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">10.3 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">09:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">10.1 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">10:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">10.0 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">11:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.8 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">12:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.7 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">13:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.1 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">14:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">8.1 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">15:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">8.1 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">16:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">8.7 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">17:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">9.6 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">18:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">11.1 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">19:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">14.5 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">20:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">16.4 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">21:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">17.0 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">22:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">15.7 senti</td></tr><tr class="border-t border-gray-950/10 align-top"><td class="py-2 pr-4 font-medium text-gray-950">23:00</td><td class="py-2 text-gray-700">16.6 senti</td></tr></tbody></table></div></section>

Cheapest quarter-hour today: 15:00–15:15

Dearest quarter-hour today: 23:00–23:15

Tomorrow

Tomorrow’s prices are not out yet. They are published from about 13:45 each day, once the day-ahead market has cleared.

How big is the prize, honestly

On Võrk 2 the network charges 3.17 senti/kWh more by day than at night, VAT included. That is the whole of what timing saves you when the market is calm — and it is the larger part of the saving on most days, because the market price itself is often only two or three senti.

In plain terms: moving a 2 kWh wash from a weekday afternoon to after 22:00 saves about six senti. Six senti. Over a year of daily washing that is around twenty euros, which is real but is not the difference between an affordable winter and an expensive one. What decides that is how your flat is heated and how much electricity it needs in the first place — this page can only tell you what each kilowatt-hour costs, not how many of them you use.

Which package you are on, and whether it is the right one

The package name is on your network bill (võrguarve) from Elektrilevi. Elektrilevi's own guidance is: Võrk 1 for homes using up to 350 kWh a year, Võrk 2 for 350–2600 kWh, and Võrk 4 for over 2600 kWh.

The trade-off is the monthly fee against the price per kilowatt-hour. Võrk 4's kilowatt-hours are the cheapest of the three but its apartment fee is 7.87 € a month before VAT against Võrk 2's 3.65 € — about 50 € a year more, which you only get back if you use a lot. A flat heated by electricity usually does. A student room usually does not.

The fees above are the apartment (korter) rate, which applies where a flat's share of the building's main fuse is 16 A or under. A house with its own 16–63 A connection pays more, on a ladder published in the same price list.

Võrk 5 exists, and this page does not model it

Elektrilevi also sells a fourth package, Võrk 5, which adds a separate peak price in winter. This tool does not offer it, because modelling it half-correctly would be worse than leaving it out.

For the record, its rates are 5.29 senti/kWh by day, 8.18 at the daytime peak, 3.03 at night and 4.74 at the weekend peak, all before VAT, with a monthly apartment fee of 3.92 €. The peak windows run from November to March only: weekdays 09:00–12:00 and 16:00–20:00, and Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays 16:00–20:00. If you are on Võrk 5, use Elektrilevi's own price list rather than this page for the network part.

The charges that are not the network's

Four charges ride on top of the network fee, all flat round the clock and all shown before VAT here: the renewable energy charge (taastuvenergia tasu) at 0.84 senti/kWh, unchanged for 2026; the security of supply charge (varustuskindluse tasu) at 0.758 senti/kWh, new from 1 January 2026 and reviewed twice a year; electricity excise duty at 0.21 senti/kWh, where the rise planned for 1 May 2026 was cancelled by the Riigikogu; and the balancing capacity charge (tasakaalustamisvõimsuse kulu) at 0.373 senti/kWh.

The first three arrive on your network bill. The balancing charge arrives on your electricity seller's bill instead, which is why it can look as though it has gone missing. It is counted here because you pay it either way. It falls to 2.97 € per MWh from 1 January 2027.

VAT on electricity is 24%, the standard Estonian rate since 1 July 2025. Elektrilevi's price list is written without VAT and adds it to the invoice total; this page adds it to every line so the figures you see are the ones you pay.

Where these figures come from

Your electricity seller's own margin (marginaal) and any monthly fee it charges are not included here, and they are not published anywhere — they are in your own contract, on your own bill. So treat every figure on this page as a floor: the least a kilowatt-hour can cost you at that hour, not the final price. If you know your margin, type it into the box above and the whole page recalculates.

Prices are the Nord Pool day-ahead prices for the Estonian bidding zone, published quarter-hourly by Elering in euros per megawatt-hour without VAT and converted here to senti per kilowatt-hour. They are the same figures your supplier’s spot price is built from, but your supplier adds its own margin, so its number will be higher than this one.

Elektrilevi's network service price list, in force from 1 June 2026

Prices from Elering, Estonia’s transmission system operator

Updated now.