Around 60% of users have already chosen the free electricity market. From the remaining 40% (9 million), it is necessary to subtract the so-called vulnerable users (4.5 million, 20%), therefore we assume that 20% (still 4.5 million) of users who, within three years from 1 July, they will have to switch to the free electricity market.
THE EFFECTS ON BILLS
The auctions for the assignment of users who did not switch to the free market by the end of 2023 took place last January 10, for the transition to a market of gradual protections under the control of the Energy Authority, Arera. If there are no appeals and changes to the energy decree (being converted in Parliament), the first effects will be noticed in the bills that will arrive between the end of August and the beginning of September: users will know which operator they have been transferred to and how much they will spend – with price variable – for the next 33 months. HOW TO CHOOSE
In this period the assigned operators (above all but not only) will continue to propose offers from the free market; they will do more or less “traditional” advertising, without excluding forms of aggressive and intrusive marketing. If you don’t have precise ideas, advises the consumer association Aduc, it will be better to stay in the market with gradual protections and, when choosing a future operator, check whether the one assigned has a quality service (precision, clarity, assistance, availability, solidity and commercial and financial capacity). An evaluation parameter to confirm the existing operator or choose the new one, Aduc always suggests, could be whether or not transfer penalties to another operator (recently introduced) are applied; this also applies in the event that an operator, in order to win a new customer, proposes to bear the costs of this penalty and he does not foresee it.