Electricity bills, Arera clarifies: until 30 June OK for all requests to return from the free market to gradual safeguards

"The re-entry into the electricity Increased Protection service, for non-vulnerable domestic users, can be requested by the customer until 30 June. The date of receipt of the customer's request through the channels, including telephone or telematic channels, indicated by the operator of the Increased Protection service is authentic". This is clarified by Arera (Regulatory Authority for Energy Networks and Environment) after the Recommendation made to the operators of the greater protection service on 23 February 2024, on the subject of information and usability of the service activation methods. "Non-vulnerable domestic electric customers, who are currently in the free market, have the right to request to return to the Greater Protection service until 30 June 2024, in order to be transferred to the Gradual Protection Service," Arera specified in a note. The request must be made to the operator of the Greater Protection service in the municipality where the supply is located. For those who do not know the name of the operator of the Greater Protection Service, the Authority would like to remind you that it has set up a specific page on the website www.arera.it'.

"Operators of Greater Protection must submit switching requests to the Integrated Information System in accordance with the ordinary timetable; in all cases, the switch to the Gradual Protection Service will be guaranteed. Until the Gradual Protection Service takes effect, the current contract will continue to apply. As for all switching requests, continuity of supply will always be guaranteed and no intervention on the meter will be required.

Nothing changes instead for vulnerable domestic customers served in the "greater protection" mode "who will continue to use the same service even after the 1 July deadline". In order to ensure that all requests made by customers by 30 June receive a reply as soon as possible, Arera reiterates to the operators of greater protection "the recommendation to facilitate the transmission by domestic customers of the contractual documentation, including through electronic channels that do not require forms of accreditation and / or e-mail, and to limit as much as possible the time elapsing between the date of receipt of the request by the customer and the upload by the operator, clarifying in particular that the customer has the right to waive the right to reconsider.

The Authority considered it particularly important to disseminate the clarification also in relation to the monitoring of offers relating to the first two months of 2024, "which shows the absence of offers in the free market with an energy price more advantageous than that guaranteed by the service of Maximum Protection". Finally, Arera recalls "the web page, also accessible from the home page of the site, dedicated to the identification of the operator of the Maximum Protection through search engine activated by entering the name of the municipality. For further information on the return to Protection or to report difficulties with the operators, the toll-free number of Arera's Energy and Environment Consumer Desk is always available: 800 166 654".