Electricity subsidies to stay
State authority scolds power providers for presenting state aid as their own price policy
Households will be partly shielded from rising energy costs through state support measures as long as the global energy crisis lasts, Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said Tuesday.
At the same time, the Regulatory Authority for Energy said electricity providers are touting the considerable state subsidies as their own and warned that it could impose fines for those misleading statements.
Wholesale energy prices have continued rising, causing worries about the state’s ability to continue subsidizing electricity bills and of households’ ability to withstand the effects of higher prices.
The actual price of electricity now exceeds €400 per megawatt-hour (MWh), double the level the government had budgeted for when it had announced its subsidy program. The price of natural gas stands at €200 per MWh.
“Just for the month of August, we have announced €1.136 billion in subsidies to households and small and medium-sized enterprises, Skrekas told Skai TV. “This will continue for as long as the energy crisis lasts… Our main priority is to keep [electricity] bills at reasonable levels through the ceiling on fees to wholesalers and an indirect ceiling on retail prices, as we absorb about 90% of increased costs,” he added.
RAE on Tuesday denounced misleading advertising tactics by electricity companies that falsely claim to provide reduced rates by not mentioning the significant state subsidies, which reach €0.337 per kilowatt-hour and allow consumers to actually pay €0.15 to €0.17 per kWh, depending on their provider.
“Such practices are obviously misleading because they can create false impressions to consumers over the providers’ pricing policies. Indeed this false or selective representation undermines the consumer’s right to a free choice of provider,” RAE said in a statement.
The authority added that providers making such statements work against “healthy competition in the retail market.”
Skrekas, in turn, criticized the providers.
“We will not tolerate violations of the consumer protection legislation we have passed,” he said.
“Already, a few providers tried to compensate by increasing fixed charges, that is why we instituted a price cap of €5 on them per month,” the minister added.
