The context of a perfect storm combining the effects of the war in Ukraine, inflation and the energy crisis has affected energy prices across Europe throughout the year. And Portugal is no exception. Last October, to curb the rise in prices, the government announced a series of measures to support businesses and household consumers in electricity and gas, totaling €3 billion (€1 billion for the gas market and €2 billion for electricity). . Now this package has been reinforced with an extra €500 million for electricity, which rises to €2.5 billion, announced yesterday at a joint press conference of the ministers of Economy and the Environment, António Costa Silva and Duarte Cordeiro.
The support will remain in place throughout 2023, until the funds allocated are exhausted, but the measures will then be reassessed and may be extended if the external context persists.
With regard to electricity, the reduction in network access tariffs planned for 2023 means a reduction of about 35% of the final bill for industrial consumers and about 80% of the bill for household consumers, Minister Costa e Silva assures. “This is a structural measure, very important for the market and for companies,” he said.
This reinforcement of 500 million comes from “availability that still exists in the 2022 state budget”, declared the Minister of the Environment, Duarte Cordeiro, namely from the ISP (Tax on Petroleum), CESE (Extraordinary Contribution on the Energy Sector) and auctions of greenhouse gas emission permits.
The transfer of these values will be carried out through the usual mechanisms that guarantee, the minister assumes, “that the national industry can continue to operate normally and, as it has done, contributes to the increase of the country’s international competitiveness “.
Duarte Cordeiro also revealed that this new injection will be considered in the final version of the tariff proposal of ERSE (Entidade Reguladora dos Serviços Energéticos), which will be released today.
The 500 million “already go into the definition of tariffs that will be communicated by ERSE”, according to the minister.
Exceptional support for gas, on the other hand, has an allocation of one billion euros for the year 2023. With this support, the government guarantees large consumers (annual consumption of more than 10,000 m3) a saving of 42 euros per megawatt, from February. The discount, which covers 80% of the consumption billed on the first invoice, will be applied the following month.
Source: DN
