Reduce costs, simplify and make bills more transparent, ensure that what we pay really corresponds to the costs of the services. These are the main objectives of the Energy Authority's electricity tariff reform which, starting from 2016 January 30 and gradually, will affect the XNUMX million Italian domestic electricity users.
The reform envisages that the current progressive structure of network tariffs and general system charges will gradually be superseded – i.e. with a unit cost per kWh that grows by brackets as withdrawals increase – introduced about forty years ago following the oil shocks of the 70s.
At the end of the reform process, structured over 3 years, i.e. from 1 January 2018, the grid tariff (i.e. the costs paid for the transmission, distribution and metering of electricity) and the tariff for system charges (i.e. the costs to support activities of general interest for the electricity system), in total over 40% of our bill, will be the same for everyone and for every level of consumption.
Each user will therefore pay fairly for the services he uses and gradualness will allow to avoid excessive effects on those who today with low consumption pay a little less: now he will pay the exact amount for the service he uses, no longer facilitated, but cost-effective. For all the others, those who have to consume more, for example large families or those who live in non-methane-supplied areas, there will be a substantial reduction in the extra cost borne up to now.
For low-income families in real need, the Authority has also provided a 'shock absorber' that will cancel any possible negative effect. The tool is the social discount bonus, capable of intercepting those who are in concrete difficulty. With the reform in 2016, the automatic strengthening by the Authority is foreseen, so that for low-income families who are entitled to it as early as next year there is no extra expense, while maintaining their own concession.
When fully operational, to neutralize any effect, the same Authority has signaled to the Government and Parliament the opportunity to permanently strengthen the bonus, both in terms of intensity, bringing the discount on the bill from the current 20% to 35% of the expenditure, and with an expansion of the audience of those who are entitled to it.
The tariff reform will also make it possible to free up the potential for the installation of efficient electrical equipment (such as, for example, heat pumps, electric cars or induction hobs), currently held back by excessive usage costs due to the progressivity of the tariff, electricity consumption which be substitutes for those of other energy vectors (gas, LPG or other), by their nature much less renewable, also leading to a further possible overall saving.
Furthermore, these electrical appliances are those that are best suited to an increase in the penetration of renewable sources, storage systems, and the energy they produce themselves, both from the grid - in 2015 we will get close to the record of around 45% of national electricity production obtained from renewable sources – both self-produced and consumed on site with the increasingly widespread small renewable production plants.
THE REFORM IN DETAIL
The reform of the Authority's tariffs, envisaged by Legislative Decree 102/14, comes to the end of a complex consultation process, accompanied by various reports to the Government and Parliament. When fully operational, therefore from 2018, according to the reform, a non-progressive tariff structure is defined for network services, the same for all domestic customers, set on the basis of the criterion of adherence to the costs of the various services: metering costs, marketing and distribution will be covered in a fixed pro-customer portion (€/year) and in a power portion (€/kW/year), while the transmission costs in an energy portion (c€/kWh).
For the tariff for system charges, on the other hand, a differentiation is maintained between resident customers (to whom all energy is applied as today, i.e. in c€ per kWh drawn) and non-residents (to whom both a fixed and in energy quota), so that overall three quarters of the revenue (for residents and non-residents together) derives from energy quotas.
Overall, 75% of the bill will still depend on the kWh used, thus maintaining a strong incentive for citizens to behave virtuously. With the reform for families, a new 'lever' of personalization will also emerge, power, for more modern energy behaviour.
Precisely to stimulate a more careful and aware use of the engaged one, power levels will be introduced with a tighter 'pitch' than the current one, in order to increase the possibility for the customer to choose the optimal one for his needs; at the same time there will be the transitory zeroing of the costs for the change of level (which go from 30 to 0 euros) and, to make better choices, historical data on the maximum power withdrawn on a monthly basis will be made available.
The Authority, to guarantee the shock absorber for needy customers for 2016, on the basis of what is already provided for by current regulations, will update the discount bonus for electricity so as to eliminate any possible effect on disadvantaged groups, all without increase the value of the As component of the bill with which the bonus mechanism is fed. The size of the compensation will be such as to completely offset any increases in annual expenditure deriving from the reform for next year.
During 2016, the Authority will then further adjust the bonus within 60 days of the entry into force of the expected ministerial decree revising the mechanism envisaged by Legislative Decree 102/2014, or as a result of other legislative provisions on the matter.
THE GRADUALITY AT THE BASIS OF THE REFORM
The gradual process envisages that from 1 January 2016 the tiered tariff structure will remain unchanged and that, only for tariffs for network services, an initial intervention will be carried out aimed at 'damping' the effect of progressive consumption and increase the fixed quotas (per point and per power), reducing by at least 25% the entity of the existing cross-subsidy; in addition, the collection and making available to customers of data relating to the values of maximum power withdrawn is started.
From 1 January 2017 there will be full application of the non-progressive tariff for network services and the first intervention will also be carried out on the tariff for system charges, in order to reduce the progressive effect and limit the number of brackets of annual consumption; then all the innovations related to the commitment of power will be introduced, with the offer of a greater number of levels to choose from.
From 1 January 2018, the reform will be fully operational, applying the full non-progressive structure also to the tariff for general system charges. Furthermore, in line with the gradual process and in parallel with the reform, the experimentation of the current voluntary tariff for heat pumps will be extended to 2016, consulting the possibility of its extension to other domestic customers, also to collect further proposals from consumer and environmental associations.
