The price of electricity on the regulated market increased by 1.6% in January 2023 compared to December, rising to 3.3% compared to this year’s average, higher values than those proposed in October, ERSE announced at.
In a statement released this Thursday, ERSE – Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos said that “for customers who remain on the regulated market (representing 6.7% of total consumption and 941 thousand customers, at the end of October 2022), or who, being on the free market, have opted for an equivalent rate, the average variation annual transition rates for sales to end customers in normal low voltage (BTN) is 3.3%”.
On the other hand, the “annual variation presented is related to the average price of the year 2022, which includes the upward energy tariff updates in April and October 2022, as well as the exceptional tariff fixing in July 2022”, and , “As a result of these changes, BTN customers on the regulated market in January 2023 will increase by an average of 1.6% per month compared to prices in force in December 2022”.
In the same statement, ERSE explained that “this tariff increase, higher than the one announced in October, is due to a smaller surplus of Special Regime Production (PRE), to be returned to consumers, than initially foreseen”.
For example, he stressed, “since the difference in production costs in the special regime depends on the difference between the guaranteed prices for production in the special regime and the energy prices observed in the wholesale market, the observed decrease in energy prices in the wholesale markets, in October and November, means that the PRE surcharge values to be returned to the consumer are significantly lower than the values foreseen in the tariff proposal of October 15”.
According to data published by ERSE, this increase increases the average monthly bill, from January 2023, for a couple without children (power 3.45 kVA, consumption 1,900 kWh/year) by 0.54 euros and for a couple with two children (power 6 .9 kVA, consumption 5,000 kWh/year) costs 1.41 euros.
On the other hand, “in 2023, network access tariffs will be significantly reduced, with their value to consumers at all voltage levels turning negative”.
So “given the price level observed in the market in 2022, this reduction in the network access tariff contributes to a decrease of approximately -30% in the final bill of industrial consumers and of approximately -55% in the final bill of domestic consumers, alleviating the pressure of increases in the wholesale market on the final prices paid by customers, both in the regulated market and in the liberalized market”.
According to ERSE, “In addition, the economic sustainability of the SEN is guaranteed [sistema elétrico nacional]significantly reducing the value of the tariff debt by EUR 830 million, to a value of EUR 878.9 million at the end of 2023”.
Source: DN
