Teresa Ribera presents an ambitious energy plan that does not specify the main measures

The More Energy Security contingency plan plans to increase the coverage of social electricity and heating bonds, as well as tax reductions

The Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday the energy contingency plan that has been baptized as ‘+Energy Security’ with the aim of “increasing the protection of the population against the price crisis caused by the war in Ukraine”. It will also manage to “reduce the country’s gas consumption between 5.1 and 13.5%, improve energy autonomy and increase the competitiveness of the economy, while raising energy exports, acting in solidarity with the rest of the EU”, as explained by the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera.

Among the 73 measures included in this plan over 144 pages, we can highlight, for example, the reinforcement of the electricity and thermal social bonus. In this case, as in most proposals, it is not explained how this will be done.

More transparency in invoices

It also wants to provide “more transparency” to electricity and gas bills. In the case of the electricity bill, “information on the average consumption of customers sharing the same postal code shall be included”.

This newspaper has published that the electricity bill has become an act of faith for consumers, since it hides the price of the kilowatt (kWh) you pay.

Greater flexibility will be introduced in the contracted powers, both in electricity and gas, since the current regulation only allows a change every 12 months.

Likewise, the maximum penalty that energy marketers can impose on customers for the termination of contracts, normally with annual duration, will be limited. Additional contracted services in addition to the energy supply may also be terminated.

On the distressing and repeated request of domestic gas consumers living in neighborhood communities with central heating who, as they cannot benefit from the regulated tariff (TUR), pay three times as much as the rest of the consumers, the plan only explains that “there will be a protection mechanism” for the 1.6 million affected customers. “The State will adopt the necessary budgetary measures for its financing,” the document states.

Ecological Transition wants to encourage the “voluntary” installation of individual gas meters. ‘Mechanisms will be put in place in the sector where these meters are installed to allow them to be financed so that the costs are borne by the savings generated.’

This measure also pursues the installation of smart gas meters as they already exist in the electricity market where all analog meters were replaced, on a mandatory basis, by the electricity companies.

Another interesting measure is that “tax incentives will be deployed” for the substitution of fossil fuels by renewable energies. No details are given either.

One of the few measures that are specified refers to the reduction of the consumption of outdoor lighting in the municipalities, “providing loans of up to one hundred percent of the investment at an interest of 0%”.

Finally, the “accelerated” deployment of self-consumption in buildings and public facilities will be promoted.

Save 33%

On the other hand, Ribera said at the press conference after the Council of Ministers that, in August, the month with the most expensive electricity in our history, citizens “paid 33% less” than they would have paid without the measures implemented by the Government, such as the VAT reduction and the mechanism of the ‘Iberian exception’. On the latter, which limits the cost of gas used to produce electricity, he stressed that “it has generated savings of 2,837 million euros”.

Teresa Ribera also dared to venture that “the electricity bill of consumers in the first half of the year is similar to that corresponding to the same period of 2021, before the price escalation”.

It should be remembered that the minister has been forced to delay twice the presentation of this plan, for which she had 30 meetings with political parties, sectoral associations, consumer organizations and companies, due, firstly, to the celebration of the European Energy Council and, last week, by the approval of the Budget.

Source: ABC