Bills, greater protection cheaper than the free market. Here are the costs

In 2023, more than 7.5 million social bonuses were granted to families in economic and physical hardship (4.6 million for the electricity bonus and 3 million for the gas bonus), totalling just over 2.1 billion. And this is due to the effect of raising the Isee threshold for access to benefits to 15,000 euro, an enlargement that ended at the end of 2023. These are some of the numbers illustrated today, Tuesday 9 July, by the president of Arera, during the presentation of the Authority's annual report to the government and Parliament.

Besseghini's reflection started from two crucial elements for the system, that of the security of supply and the redundancy of the infrastructure, in the light of which, Arera's number one noted, with an eye on the two regasifiers planned by the executive and purchased by Snam, "the risk of a long period of non-operation for the Piombino plant due to its relocation must be averted", while on that of Ravenna, which "seems to respect the timeframe for entry into operation but with a notable increase in costs", it will be necessary "a further public effort to allow placement at competitive prices".

In his thirty-page review of Arera's activities, Besseghini then dwelt on the effectiveness of the energy bonus mechanism, the numbers of which, as mentioned, were growing in 2023 due to the extension of the audience. The president of the Authority, however, noted the difficulty of intercepting with the current tools available those consumers who are not to be considered poor in the strict sense of the word, but who are faced with a compression of their spending capacity in the presence of extraordinary energy costs. And he went on to emphasise the need to consider 'a significant coverage of system charges through general taxation'.

It was precisely on this last chapter that Arera's chairman provided some data, recalling that charges have been a significant item in Italian utility bills for the past 13 years: 162 billion in disbursements, of which around 142 billion to cover the incentives currently in operation for renewables, which, although they will undergo a significant reduction over the next five years, 'will still determine a significant cost'.

Besseghini then went on to examine the effects of the transition of greater protection in the electricity market, with the 3.6 million non-vulnerable customers who have switched to the graduated protection service, while 14.7 million are those in the free market. To date, Arera's chairman pointed out, 'the offers available on the free market appear unattractive compared to the various regulated services, being characterised by normally higher prices'. As for the auction mechanism, by which the allocation of the new service to operators was decided, this move 'has allowed for a reduction in the rate of concentration in the market, because the main operator, Enel, has seen its share reduced', but the configuration of the same has not changed substantially 'as the second operator is still largely a minority compared to the main group'. In assessing the end of price protections, Arera's number one also returned to the subject of communication to consumers, to recall the interventions put in place by the Authority - which has set up targeted information tools - and to emphasise the process of revising the electricity bill, also in order to make it more intelligible to users.