Energy companies pressure the Government to extend aid to all gas rates and stop the avalanche of changes

• The employers of the sector demand tax reduction and small energy companies ask to reduce the regulated costs of the gas bill so that the measures reach all customers
• The Executive has launched a package of aid of 3,000 million to lower the regulated tariff that is causing a massive trsvase of customers

The Government has launched a millionaire package of measures to lower the gas bill of more than three million households. An anti-crisis shield that turns to contain the price of regulated tariffs in the gas market, which is causing an avalanche of customers who ask companies to change to this type of contracts and that can cause the number of beneficiaries of aid to skyrocket.

The Executive’s plan contemplates continuing to limit by law the increases that can be applied to the 1.5 million customers of the regulated gas tariff throughout 2023 and also the creation of a new type of tariff that will halve the bill of 1.7 million homes that have central heating in their community of neighbors. The Government estimates that it will allocate 3,000 million euros to cover the cost of both measures, but is committed to providing all the necessary budget to cover the hole that the measures finally cause in the accounts of the gas system and that can be enlarged by the massive transfer of customers towards the rates with help.

Companies in the gas sector warn of the consequences of the measures adopted to lower only one type of tariff. A turnaround in the business that is already being noticed with the avalanche of requests to switch to regulated tariffs, called last resort tariffs (TUR) and that the four large energy groups in the sector (Naturgy, Endesa, Iberdrola and Totalenergies) are obliged to offer.

From the gas companies it is warned that the aid plan of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition, destined only to regulated tariffs, can break the market and threaten the stability of the companies that offer rates in the free market, so they put pressure on the Government to take measures to lower the bill of all customers and all types of rates, Not just on the one hand.

LOWER MORE TAXES FROM THE RECEIPT

The employer Sedigás – which brings together marketers, transport and distribution network companies and suppliers in the sector – warns of the consequences for the business of the compensations designed by the Government, unleashing a “massive migration” of customers towards regulated tariffs, which will now have prices much lower than market thanks to the aid.

Faced with this situation of massive transfer of customers, which companies recognize is already occurring, gas companies defend that protection reaches all consumers against price escalation. Sedigás celebrates the reduction of VAT on the gas bill from 21 to 5% at least until the end of the year, but they ask to cut other taxes from their bill such as those that electricity consumers already benefit from.

The gas companies demand a reduction of the tax of the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons (IEH) to the minimum allowed by the European Union. Currently in the Hydrocarbons Tax a rate is applied to domestic customers and most industrial customers of 0.65 euros per gigajoule (equivalent to 2.34 euros for each megawatt hour equivalent). European regulations establish a minimum for all member states of 0.30 euros per gigajoule (1.08 euros per megawatt hour).

CUT REGULATED COSTS

The small independent energy companies, which are not integrated into any large group and are not authorized to market the regulated gas tariff, denounce that the intervention of the price of gas from the TUR by the Executive endangers their entire business and directly their survival due to the massive transfer of customers.

The Association of Independent Energy Marketers (ACIE) requires the Government to adopt measures that serve to protect vulnerable consumers from the effects of the crisis specifically (such as the aid contemplated in the thermal social bonus), only those users who really need it because of their low incomes. And it claims that, if the Executive grants aid not only to vulnerable groups, these must reach all customers and not only those of the regulated tariff.

The association of small energy companies proposes to apply reductions to the regulated costs of the gas bill, through a reduction in tolls and charges included in the receipt to finance the costs of distribution and transport networks and other energy policy measures. Reducing these tolls and charges would reduce the amount of the bill for all customers and not just users of a type of tariff. “To safeguard customers and avoid the closure of independent marketers, ACIE highlights the importance of ensuring that all gas consumers are equally protected, not only those who have contracted a regulated tariff,” says the business association.

“Currently, this regulated gas tariff, which can only be sold by certain marketers, is well below the market price, so it is impossible to compete with it,” warn from ACIE. “We believe that the solution is not to put an anticompetitive and discriminatory value on the regulated tariff, but to make a reduction in tolls and charges, a concept that applies to the bills of all consumers. The limitation of the TUR, instead of the reduction of tolls that we propose, what it does is squander free commercialization and will have serious consequences in the medium term for the sector and consumers. ”

The number of customers covered by free gas market tariffs – whose price is freely set by companies – is very majority in relation to the number of customers of the regulated business – whose price is set quarterly by the Government depending on the evolution of international hydrocarbon prices, but whose increases have a maximum limit since last year. With last year’s closing data, almost 6.5 million customers had contracted free rates (more than 80% of the total) and 1.5 million continued with regulated rates.

Source: EPE