Riga heating tariff rises 19% on 1 December: what it means for your bill

Heating will cost more from 1 December for Riga residents whose buildings are heated by Rīgas siltums, the city’s district heating company. On 29 October it filed a new tariff of €96.33 per megawatt hour (MWh) before VAT with the Public Utilities Commission (SPRK). That is 19% above the current tariff of €80.96/MWh and 16% above last heating season.

Has the tariff been approved?

The company sets this tariff itself. According to a notice in Latvijas Vēstnesis, the official gazette, it takes effect on 1 December unless SPRK adopts and publishes a decision to revoke it before then. SPRK is reviewing 21 heating tariff filings and plans to finish by December, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported.

Why the tariff is rising

Rīgas siltums blamed higher energy prices: it said natural gas costs about 200% more than a year ago and biomass about 50% more. Most of the increase is in the heat production component, which rises from €56.70 to €70.06/MWh. Transmission and distribution goes up from €22.03 to €23.85/MWh, while the trading component stays at €1.83/MWh.

What it means for your bill

• Including 12% VAT, a megawatt hour now costs €90.68 and will cost €107.89 from 1 December.
• Every megawatt hour used adds €17.21 to the bill.
• Example (our calculation): a flat that uses 1MWh a month will pay €17.21 more for heating; one that uses 1.5MWh will pay €25.82 more.
• Put simply, every €100 you paid for the heat itself will become about €119.

Your bill shows how many megawatt hours your flat uses. The actual amount depends on the weather, the building’s insulation and how the building manager splits the building’s consumption between flats. Consumption is higher in the winter months, so the difference will be bigger too.

How to check your bill

• Find the amount of heat used, in megawatt hours, and the price per MWh. For December it should match the new tariff.
• The building manager splits the building’s total consumption between flats, by floor area or by individual heat meters. If anything is unclear, ask the manager for the calculation.
• Rīgas siltums publishes each building’s actual monthly consumption on its website, compared with the same month a year earlier, so you can see whether your building’s use has risen unusually.

Housing benefit

From 1 November 2026 to 30 April 2027, Riga City Council uses higher coefficients to calculate housing benefit: 2.5 (up from 2.1) for a pensioner or person with a disability living alone; 2.0 (up from 1.7) for households made up only of pensioners or people with disabilities, families with children and households with young people under 24 in education; and 1.7 (up from 1.3) for all other households.

Current recipients will have their benefit recalculated automatically. Others can apply to the Riga Social Service with their actual housing bills, and the benefit can be recalculated for up to three months back. Heating costs are counted only once the actual bill has arrived.