The resolution of the Energy Authority which established price increases on electricity and gas bills, issued this summer for the July-September 2016 quarter, it is no longer suspended. Pending the decision on the merits which will arrive in February 2017, it will be necessary to wait to see what the reaction of the companies will be: they could decide to recover the lost income through adjustments or wait to see what the prices established by the Authority will be in the next expected update for October.
Going into detail, the Lombardy Regional Administrative Court with ordinance no. 1185, published today, ruled on the question of confirming the precautionary suspension of the Authority's resolution provisionally suspended by the Regional Court itself with precautionary decree no. 911 of the Lombardy Regional Administrative Court of 19 July 2016.
In the order, the judges of the Second Section considered how the appeal presents particularly and highly complex profiles, which in any case make its outcome uncertain, therefore deeming "the need to satisfy the precautionary needs represented by the appellants through the prompt definition of the merits of the dispute, also ensuring adequate protection of the collective interest of end customers in the certainty of any refunds due in the event of acceptance of the appeal (on the merits)". The resolution is therefore suspended.
At the same time, the Regional Administrative Court "considered that the latter aim must be achieved by balancing equally the interest of end customers with that, opposed to it, of the full coverage of electricity procurement costs", further specifying that, in in principle, the reference price for the protected market must cover the actual costs of the service, including the costs associated with the public dispatching service.
For the reasons indicated above, the judges ordered "an atypical precautionary measure, suitable to substantially satisfy what was requested in a subordinate way by the appellants, ordering the Authority for electricity, gas and the water system - without prejudice to the effectiveness of the contested provisions - to adopt, within forty days of the communication or notification of this order, a specific provision, with efficacy subject to the acceptance of the appeal (on the merits), with which the methods for the liquidation are predetermined as of now and automatic payment, without the need for a specific request from the end customers, of the reimbursements due to the latter in the event of a favorable outcome of the dispute", deeming it necessary to set the public hearing of 16 February for the discussion of the merits of the appeal 2017.
