The month of July brought with it important news for small businesses and for some micro-enterprises. Starting from the first of the month, in fact, for companies that have not chosen an offer from the free market, the gradual protection service has started which automatically assigns them the operator who won the tender called by Arera for the reference area .
THE FREE MARKET FOR COMPANIES
Before going into details, a premise must be made. For some micro-enterprises and for all small enterprises, price protection for the supply of electricity ended in January 2021. Those who did not proceed by that date to choose one of the offers on the free market automatically switched to a gradual exit from the protection that Arera, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment, has divided into several phases. The one taken on 1 July is the second phase which will last for three years and which provides that “the Gradual Protection Service is provided by selected sellers through competitive procedures. The continuity of the supply is always guaranteed”, explains Arera.
THE COMPANIES INVOLVED
The changes that came into force on Thursday 1 July concern all small businesses with "low voltage" withdrawal points with between 10 and 50 employees and/or an annual turnover of between 2 and 10 million euros. Also involved are micro-enterprises owning at least one withdrawal point with contractually committed power exceeding 15 kW, with fewer than 10 employees and a turnover of up to 2 million euros.
For all other micro-enterprises and domestic customers, the deadline will be 1 January 2023.
WHAT CHANGES
With effect from 1 July, the companies mentioned above which did not choose an offer on the free market switched to the gradual protection service guaranteed by a vendor selected by tender.
“The contractual conditions correspond to those of the so-called PLACET offer (regulated by ARERA), and the price is determined on the basis of the results of the auctions”, specifies the Authority.
Each customer therefore receives a communication from the seller to whom it has been assigned which contains the operator's contacts, the conditions of service provision, the conditions for withdrawing from the contract and references to ARERA's IT tools. At any time it is possible to choose a contract from the open market.
Here is a table from Arera indicating "the winning operators" in the various Regions:
