For electricity, gas and water it is urgent extend the bonus to 2,2 million poor families of which today only 800 households benefit. But the Authority for Energy, Water and Waste (Arera) is looking straight at the infrastructure and the "transition to sustainability” which will become the hallmark of the Authority's activity, at the center of the annual report presented Thursday in Parliament.
Traditionally, the appointment becomes a final balance on the activity carried out in the previous months but for the Authority which has recently taken office, it is above all an opportunity to present the program of the activity to be carried out. At stake is theaccompanying 19 million customers towards full liberalization of the electricity market scheduled for July 2020 but the new president Stefano Besseghini and the commissioners (Clara Poletti, Stefano Saglia, Andrea Guerrini and Gianni Castelli) also look at other challenges, such as those on the sensitive issues of water and waste management. Themes so important that on Wednesday, on the eve of the report, the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella wanted to know more, receiving the college at the Quirinale.
WASTE EMERGENCY: A FEE TO PROMOTE INVESTMENT
"In the conversation we had on Wednesday, President Mattarella asked interesting questions on the need to mend the tears between different areas of Italy in the quality of the water service and waste management," Besseghini specified before entering the Chamber. The dramatic waste situation in Rome is there for all to see and the Authority is well aware of it: "As in '95-'96 in Milan, what is happening today in Rome can be an opportunity to arrive at a more efficient and coherent system at national level. Our goal is to act on the tariff lever to promote investments”, explained Besseghini together with Commissioner Gianni Castelli.
It starts from a general survey (“and receiving data from local authorities throughout Italy is anything but a simple operation”, underlined Castelli) to arrive at defining the cost of the service. The transition path will allow for switch from the tax to a new tariff "asymmetrical, flexible, able to incorporate and enhance the territorial specificities" tending to unify the country today deeply divided on the quality of waste collection services. It will be necessary to take into account the profound inhomogeneities existing along the boot, for example between Lombardy, Calabria and the capital itself, to name a few concrete cases. In practice, the regulation will promote investments in plants, looking above all at recycling (rather than differentiated) and in this way seeking to unify the country. Not a top-down process but making it cost effective to invest in new equipment. Everything will also be based on maximum transparency.
The turn that events in Rome are taking, however, worries the Authority. “The appeal not to pay the Tari – he stigmatized Stephen Saglia – indicates that we are reaching a point of no return. It is good to clarify that what we pay is used to make the investments so I understand the resentment but we must be careful not to go beyond the point of no return".
La transition to sustainability therefore it applies to waste but equally to water. And the president of the Authority recalled how the regulation of the sector will be based on the model sunshinand that is "on the publication of the manager's performance data also from a comparative point of view". In this field, while Parliament is currently considering a law that removes the powers of the Arera (proposed by M5S), the Authority has started discussions with the Environment commission to argue that if it is possible to think of an Authority only for water, it is still necessary that the regulation remains entrusted to an independent Authority as demonstrated also the Scottish case.
LIGHT AND GAS BILLS: GRADUALITY TOWARDS THE MARKET
"In July 2020, a non-optimal situation could arise" for the overcoming of the protected energy market "but it is equally clear that the further postponement of the deadline would represent an element of uncertainty". The crux, explains the Authority, is to "expose the user to the risk of a market that is structurally unable to offer the expected advantages, primarily economic, with respect to its maintenance". The process "advances, however at different speeds" without a decree for the development of accompanying measures having yet been issued: for this reason the Authority deems it appropriate that the transition to the free market be "gradual". In practice, the Authority will launch a consultation after the summer, to be concluded by the end of the year, to propose a path that does not represent a mere postponement but rather a gradual implementation (starting, for example, from non-domestic customers) in stages, up to involving the entire audience of consumers.
As for the electricity, gas and water bonus, the proposal to make the subsidy automatic in the bill was presented a few days ago by Arera with a report to Parliament, relaunched in the annual report. The Authority hopes that a regulation will be approved which allows "the efficient telematic exchange between the INPS database and that of the integrated information system". The operation would have no additional costs, because a provision has already been made for gas, while for electricity the extra bill would be very limited (within 1 euro per year per family).
