Three proceedings initiated for the implementation of the interventions envisaged by the "Annual law for the market and competition", which entered into force on 29 August 2017, relating to the further development of the retail market and the cessation from July 2019 of the price protection for households and small businesses in the electricity and gas sectors. With resolution 610/2017/R/com, already approved today by the Energy Authority, the procedures were initiated for the implementation of the new interventions envisaged by the law for the sectors concerned, to give further impetus to the initiatives already initiated by the Authority in the light of the parliamentary work of the then draft law on competition.
In particular, in order to achieve the objectives of the law within the indicated times, the initiation of an initial procedure is envisaged for the creation by the Single Buyer (manager of the SII - Integrated Information System) of a web portal for the collection and the publication of offers on the market. This will allow families and small businesses to compare and choose the electricity or gas offer that best suits their needs. Still on the front of transparency and comparability of offers, a second procedure will identify the guidelines for the promotion of commercial electricity and gas offers in favor of Purchasing Groups and the creation of IT platforms that facilitate aggregation of small consumers. Finally, a third procedure will lead to the definition of the criteria, methods and technical, financial and integrity requirements for registration in the list of electricity sellers, which will be the subject of a decree from the Minister of Development economic and will constitute a necessary condition for carrying out the sales activity to customers.
These measures are part of a process already undertaken by the Authority through measures aimed at improving the capacity of small customers for full awareness of the right to choose their electricity or gas supplier, also due to the overcoming of the protections of price starting from 1 July 2019.
Starting from January 2018, in fact, the standard PLACET offer (at Free Price Under Equiparate Protection Conditions - PLACET) will be available for small customers, i.e. an offer aimed at families and small businesses, more clear and understandable, at free prices and contractual conditions defined by the Authority. This offer, among other things included among the provisions of the law, also has the objective of identifying the minimum contractual conditions and the requirements that operators must comply with in order to guarantee comparability and homogeneity between offers.
