“The Italian system of consumer protection in the electricity market, now completely liberalized for almost five years, represents a reference model that could also be adopted by other countries engaged in processes of opening up the electricity sector to competition”. This was highlighted by Eng. Paolo Vigevano, managing director of the public company Acquirente Unico (AU), at the conference "The consumer in the European energy market", promoted by the same company with the IERN-International Energy Regulation Network.
“With satisfaction – said Vigevano – we have registered the filing of the infringement procedure by the European Commission, which has recognized the compliance with the Community criteria of our system for determining the prices of electricity for protected consumers. In fact, these are not set administratively, but correspond to the purchase costs of electricity incurred by AU, operating in the Italian and foreign wholesale market”.
“This outcome – explained Vigevano – was made possible by the synergistic action of the Government and the AEEG towards Brussels, in support of the validity of the Italian regulation of the electricity market which, in Europe, is among those which best combine the promotion of competition and the protection of small consumers. This is also demonstrated by the data on the transition from the protected to the free market and vice versa which highlight the dynamism of consumer behaviour. With the demand aggregation function performed by Acquirente Unico, small consumers participate in the 'competitive game' in the same way as larger consumers with higher individual negotiating power”. As at 31 December 2011, the enhanced protection regime served 28,5 million users (23,7 million domestic customers and 4,8 million small businesses), for a total demand of 84,3 TWh (25,4% of that total), supplied by AU.
AU manages the Energy Consumer Desk on behalf of the Electricity and Gas Authority (Call center toll-free number 800 166 654) to provide information, assistance and protection of rights to electricity and gas end customers. Furthermore, as envisaged by the legislator, Acquirente Unico is currently designing, building and running the Integrated Information System (SII), based on a new design for the standardization of communication processes and the exchange of information between electricity market operators and some gas. The recent “liberalization” law decree (n. 1/12) has provided for the extension of its functions to the management of consumption measurements of end customers.
“In this evolutionary phase of the liberalization process, the protection instruments help to gradually grow a climate of trust in market mechanisms among small consumers”, concluded Eng. Paolo Vigevano, noting that “to create a context in which suppliers can freely negotiate commercial conditions without constraints, it is necessary to continue investing in consumer information tools. Only in this way will the number of consumers able to benefit from the competitive confrontation between the various energy suppliers be able to grow".
