Industry still faces high energy costs
Domestic industries have to fight an unequal battle compared to their European competitors to maintain production, which is affected by the increased costs of the energy transition and competition from third countries.
While other European countries, such as France and Germany, are implementing targeted plans to reduce the energy costs of their enterprises, local industries seem to have been abandoned to their own fate.
Greece, at a delay, adopts European Commission-approved measures at a central level to reduce industrial enterprises’ energy costs and applies them at an even greater delay, while designing tools to reduce energy costs, which it cancels a few months later, like the green power purchase agreements, and hikes electricity and natural gas costs with exorbitant increases in network charges, wiping out the benefit of de-escalation of megawatt-hour rates.
Already, 2024 has started with bad news for industries in Thessaloniki and Thessaly that operate on gas. With a decision taken by watchdog RAAEY on January 29, the network usage fees for the industries in those two regions increased from 31% in 2023 to 64%.
