General system charges: what are they and who pays less?

What they are, and who collects them

On the electricity invoice, alongside energy, network and taxes, there is the item for general system charges: for ARERA, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment, these are costs of activities of general interest for the electricity system, introduced over time by specific legislation. The basis is Legislative Decree 79 of 1999, Article 3, paragraph 11.

They are a surcharge on the distribution tariff. The path they take:

• the supplier invoices them, collects them from you and passes the revenue on to the distributor;
• the distributor pays them every month to the CSEA, the Energy and Environmental Services Fund;
• the CSEA holds them in management accounts; how they are used is decided by ARERA.

In low voltage the charges item can contain only ASOS and ARIM; the UC3 and UC6 components sit in the network costs. The gas invoice also has its own charges item, with other components.

ASOS and ARIM: what they fund

Since 2018 the charges have been two components:

• ASOS covers support for renewable energy. All the revenue goes to the CSEA account for new plants from renewable and assimilated sources.
• ARIM covers the remaining charges: among others, the special tariff regime for the railways (RFI, Rete Ferroviaria Italiana), system research, protection for customers in hardship, energy efficiency. Since 1 January 2026 four of its six elements have been set at zero: the ones that remain are for RFI and for technological and industrial development.

ASOS weighs much more than ARIM. In the fourth quarter of 2026, for a non-energy-intensive company in medium voltage with more than 500 kW of available power, the energy charge is 3.2051 euro cents per kWh for ASOS and 0.1337 for ARIM.

How they are calculated on the invoice

For a business, ASOS and ARIM generally have three charges: fixed, in euro cents per withdrawal point per year; power, per kW of committed power per year (without a limiter, committed power is the maximum drawn in the month); energy, per kWh.

The values change with the type of contract: low voltage up to 16.5 kW and above; medium voltage up to 100 kW, from 100 to 500 and above 500 kW; high and extra-high voltage. For non-domestic supplies, 75% of the ASOS revenue is collected with the same rate for every kWh, at any voltage; the rest, and all of ARIM, in proportion to the network tariffs.

ARERA updates the rates every quarter, according to requirements. From 1 July 2026 it increased ASOS (resolution 227/2026/R/com): the annual revenue was lower than the charges expected for 2025 and 2026, which had also grown because of new incentive schemes. From 1 October it confirmed all the values (343/2026/R/com).

Who pays a reduced share

Energy-intensive companies that meet the requirements of Article 3 of Decree-Law 131 of 2023 pay only part of ASOS, according to their class (who qualifies and how much is explained in the guide Energy-intensive companies: who are they and what relief do they get?). On the invoice:

• the CSEA draws up the list of companies, with each one’s class, and the distributor applies to every withdrawal point the ASOS for that class (ASOS1, ASOS2 or ASOS3), from the first possible invoice;
• alternatively, the company can ask to pay the minimum contribution, as a percentage of gross value added, directly to the CSEA: ASOS on the invoice is then zero;
• ARIM stays the same for everyone, and an energy-intensive company’s domestic supplies get no relief.

The lower revenue is recovered through a higher ASOS for the other withdrawal points.

The discount under Decree-Law 21 of 2026. Since 1 April 2026 ASOS has been reduced for non-domestic low-voltage supplies for other uses and for medium, high and extra-high voltage supplies; public lighting, withdrawals under RFI’s special regime and energy-intensive companies on the list are left out. It is not a separate line: it is already built into the rate.

Where the charges are not paid on all the energy

Self-consumption through a private connection. ARERA calls it a simple production and consumption system (SSPC): a power line connects one or more production plants to the consumption units of an end customer, or of companies in the same group. The per-kWh charges apply only to the energy drawn from the grid; the fixed charge and the power charge remain on the withdrawal points.

Auxiliary services of production plants. For ARERA, network and system charges are paid on energy for final consumption, not on the energy a plant needs to produce and feed into the grid. Since 2023, on application by the producer to the grid operator, these withdrawals are “negative fed-in energy”, with no network charges and no system charges. Until 31 December 2026 the previous regime also remains available, with the same exemption, within the limits of the power declared in a sworn expert report: if the power drawn exceeds it by more than 10%, the conditions for end customers apply for the whole calendar year. The steps are in the guide UPSA and auxiliary services: how do you get the exemption from charges?

What EKA does about system charges

We recalculate every invoice item by item with Calibra, charges included, with the regulation alongside. We take care of excise duty exemptions and relief, and we take the work of contracts, invoices and relief off an energy-intensive company’s hands: it is the service for consumers. For producers, on the plants’ auxiliary supplies we check that the exemption from transport and system charges is applied on the invoice (services for plants). The other items are in the guide How to read a business’s energy invoice.