Heating tariffs in Latvia could be on average 5–15% higher this heating season than during the previous one, Climate and Energy Minister Jānis Vitenbergs (NA) said in an interview with TV3’s programme “900 sekundes” on Wednesday.
“For most companies, the increase will be moderate,” Vitenbergs said.
He noted that heating tariffs could rise by between 5% and 15%, although the increase could be significantly higher in some municipalities.
Vitenbergs also said that district heating in Latvia is provided by around 60 companies, with prices ranging from approximately 60 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh), for example in Balvi, to 140–150 euros elsewhere.
As previously reported by LETA, the Ministry of Climate and Energy (KEM) plans to propose increasing the housing benefit and expanding the number of households eligible for it during the upcoming heating season, while also maintaining monthly support for protected electricity users.
For the upcoming heating season,
the ministry proposes expanding the range of support recipients to include low-income families,
families with children and senior citizens. KEM proposes allocating ten million euros for this purpose.
KEM also proposes increasing the coefficients used to calculate housing benefits during the heating season. This would increase support for existing recipients while allowing a wider range of households to qualify for the benefit.
At the same time, the ministry proposes increasing the state’s co-financing share for municipalities to 50%, thereby reducing the additional burden on municipal budgets.
Around 31,000 households currently receive housing benefits. Together with the Ministry of Welfare, a proposal has therefore been prepared to expand the scheme, reserving up to ten million euros for this purpose.
The proposed changes are expected to allow an additional 28,000 to 38,000 households to qualify for support
and increase assistance by 40 to 70 euros per month per household member.
As part of a review of KEM expenditure, the ministry also proposes allocating approximately four million euros in savings to support protected electricity users.
This would allow various groups of households to continue receiving the existing monthly discount of 20 to 25 euros on their electricity bills until the end of the year.
KEM stresses that ahead of the 2026/2027 heating season, natural gas reserves are sufficient, while the availability of wood chips and pellets has improved following high demand during the summer. Meanwhile, the average increase in district heating tariffs across Latvia remained below 5% in September.
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