Increasingly expensive electricity for families and small and medium-sized enterprises. In a few days, the Energy Authority will communicate the tariffs that will take effect from 2007 October for all customers under the "enhanced protection" regime, which are the vast majority despite the fact that the market has been liberalized since XNUMX. And if in July the The Authority has managed to keep the cost of the electricity bill stable, it is not certain that it will succeed this time too. A slight cyclical recovery in wholesale prices and the insurance costs paid by the Single Buyer are under observation. In other words, price hikes are probably on the way. By how much, we will know at the beginning of next week.
Yet in the first part of the year, wholesale prices collapsed, consumption fell sharply due to the crisis and the entire electricity system, with the jolt of renewables that has put traditional production plants in check, is under stress. The figures make an impression: before the summer, the price of the megawatt hour on the power exchange collapsed to 42 euros and in July it timidly went down to 46,42 euros. Nothing to do with the 75 euros of 2012 or the average 63 of 2013.
After the summer break, prices have risen slightly also due to the Ukraine-Russia crisis, at 55 euros in September while for October forward contracts are listed at 55,45 euros and for 2015 it is 54 euros. Prices that would be lower if there weren't the Sicilian plants that reach unmatched peaks elsewhere. Well, along the way to the bill, the price rises by almost 400%: families and small-medium businesses, shops and artisans pay almost 190 euros per megawatt hour for electricity. 189,75 euros to be exact, the average value decided by the Authority for the third quarter of 2014.
How is such a leavening possible? Taxes take away 13,34% of the price paid by a typical consumer (2700 kilowatt hours consumed per year and a 3 kilowatt meter). Then there are the general system costs which absorb 21,43%: here, together with the incentives for renewables which cost 13 billion a year, there are also the costs for making nuclear power banned since 1987, the Ferrovie dello Stato, Cip6 and concessions for large energy-intensive industries. They are already known things. Less known is that 50% of the bill goes to pay for the sale of energy.
Because this same item also includes the costs incurred by Terna to balance the grid, the remuneration of interruptible customers (469 million euros a year) and super-interruptible customers (another 136 million), the interconnector or virtual import ( 495 million), the capacity payment (125 million). In short, even in the sale price there is a mix of items that have nothing to do with energy.
Even so, it is difficult to explain the huge gap between wholesale and retail. The modest 7% cyclical increase recorded at source in recent months does not justify such a large gap. Because the price per megawatt hour (45-50 euros) is in any case about half the selling cost (95 euros). According to the specialists, the insurance contracts stipulated by the Single Buyer weigh heavily to cover themselves against the risk of sudden increases at source. The combination of all these items will ensure, barring unexpected trend reversals, that not even the forthcoming tariffs for the fourth quarter will record for consumption the drop that occurred in recent months for production.
The Competitiveness Law had to come to the rescue of families and small businesses. But the promised 10% drop on bills is not yet within reach because the application decrees of the controversial "spread incentives" have not yet been signed by the Ministry of Development. And the Gse is continuing to pay the incentives based on the old regulations. Meanwhile Assorinnovabili is about to launch the offensive of unconstitutionality appeals also involving Confagricoltura. Just yesterday a meeting with a hundred companies, in the presence of the constitutional lawyer Valerio Onida, served to take stock of the situation.
