Electricity bill: price drop of 19.8% in the second quarter. Gradual protection takes effect from 1 July

The electricity bill for households still in protection will drop by 19.8% in the second quarter of the year. The Energy, Networks and Environment Authority has updated electricity supply prices for non-vulnerable customers: this is, as is well known, the last communication since, as of 1 July, those who have not yet made a choice on the free market will be automatically transferred to the new graduated protection service with the supplier selected by auction in that area. This service will run for just under three years, at the end of which, in the absence of an explicit choice, customers will continue to be supplied by the same vendor on the free market.

The drop communicated by the Authority chaired by Stefano Besseghini is the result of the decline that affected gas and electricity prices towards the end of last year and in the early months of this year, but which is now slowing down due to uncertainties linked to growing geopolitical tensions. The price expectations of the natural gas market for the second quarter of 2024, favoured by a level of European storages which - thanks to a relatively mild winter - is historically high at the end of the delivery season, resulted in an estimated electricity price (Pun) of around 83 euros per megawatt hour.

In terms of final effects, the expenditure for the typical household - i.e. the one with an average electricity consumption of 2,700 kilowatt-hours per year and a committed power of 3 kilowatts - in the rolling year (between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024) will be approximately EUR 662, bringing it close to pre-crisis levels, down 47.7 per cent compared to the equivalent 12-month period of the previous year (1 July 2022- 30 June 2023), when the price of energy peaked.

"This is the time for us as consumers to evaluate what to do, to check our annual costs and consumption, to understand whether we are on the free market or in protection, whether or not we are vulnerable, and whether or not returning to protection is a convenient option in light of the automatic switch to the graduated protection service in July," explains Arera president Stefano Besseghini. Until now, the greater protection service has made it possible to offer an efficient price, which has provided a benchmark for the market, but as the end of the protection service draws near, we must always remember that it does not exhaust contractual protection, the rules and the Authority's supervision of their observance, and the protections for consumers at every stage of supply".

As of 31 December 2023, almost 73 per cent of domestic customers had chosen an offer in the free market, so the number of non-vulnerable domestic customers served in greater protection amounted to about 4.5 million. For vulnerable customers, on the other hand, Arera will continue to update the economic conditions of the greater protection service on a quarterly basis, until the auctions provided for in the latest Energy Decree take place.