Cheap electricity might soon last longer - and apply on Saturdays as well. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is preparing a new tariff model that would expand the windows for a lower electricity price and bring part of the weekend into them.

Until now, the cheaper tariff applied during specific night hours and on Sundays. Under the new proposal, the range of „cheap" windows would widen, which for households means the chance to shift their bigger consumers - the washing machine, the water heater, the heating - into periods when electricity costs less.

On paper, that sounds like good news for an ordinary family's budget. But it's worth waiting for the details: widening the cheap windows only makes sense if the prices in those windows actually stay low, and not if the expensive tariffs are raised at the same time. When the regulator promises savings, a careful citizen reads the whole bill first, not just the headline. Whether this is real relief or just a different arrangement of the same consumption - the first bill after the change will tell.