Enel and Hera are full of customers in the auctions for the supply of electricity to those customers who will leave the protected market from 1 July and have not independently chosen a free market operator.
In fact, 7 areas went to Enel (the maximum assignable), 7 also to era, 4 to Edison Energia, 3 to Illumia, 2 to A2A, 2 to Iren, 1 to Eon. Real competition, as noted from the day the auctions were held, even with offers with significant discounts.
The transition to gradual protections
The customer auctions are linked to the fact that the customers of the protected party who have not chosen the free market operator will be moved to the Gradual protection service. For this service, the Italian territory was divided into 26 areas: each was assigned to a single operator, with an auction held on January 10th.
The contractual conditions of Gradual Protection Service corresponds to those of the Placet offerswhile the economic conditions relating to the cost of energy are based on the final monthly values of the Pun (single national price) and include the fees to cover other costs.
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Arera, the electricity sector authority, recalls that the definitive economic conditions of the gradual protection service, the same throughout Italy, can only be defined and made known closer to the transition to the new service, in the month of June. A price “equalization” mechanism is also envisaged, in order to level it for end customers on the national territory.
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A saving (for now) of 11 euros per month
In fact, to establish the final price, the weighted average of the award prices of the auctions will be taken into account, calculated taking into account the number of customers present in each area who are estimated to switch to the gradual protection service. In practice, the economic offer made by the operators to win the customer packages is taken and a sort of equalization is applied so that the final price to users is leveled on a national level. Under current conditions, which will be updated on the eve of July, the weighted average of the auction results leads to a saving of 73 euros per year. However, this is only one of the items (the so-called “gamma parameter”) that make up the economic offer of the gradual protections, which also include the variable price of energy, other fees and transport costs, meter management and system charges. If we compare this “gamma parameter” with the marketing components of the protection (+58 euros for the comparable item), we can estimate a saving in the order of 130 euros per year, 11 euros per month.
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The supply doesn’t stop
The supplier change will take place automatically and without any interruption in the supply. Even in the case of direct debit, the Rid will remain active and will be redirected to the new one free of charge.
The Gradual Protection Service will last three years (from 1 July 2024 to 31 March 2027) and during this period the consumer will be able to choose freely, and at any time, a supplier on the free market (to help the consumer identify the best offer suited to your needs on the free market there are the Offers Portal and the Consumption Portal).
Company strategies
If they do not independently opt for a new supplier, the users who are currently under protection will most likely change operator. If you scroll through the list of auction assignments, in fact, a certain reshuffling of the presence in the territories emerges. Enel, which has over 4 million users currently under protection, has made an important bet by gaining almost a third of the available audience (a package of 1.4 million gradual protections). An average discount for the awarding of your lots is estimated to be in the order of 60 euros. Significant the choice to go especially to the Northwith areas such as Brescia e Milano where it was not the main operator or among the very first, but also at the Center and in particular on the municipality of Roma. The objective appears to be to increase market shares and push on the leverage of additional services (for example the supply of gas) as well as to ferry – at the end of the transitional period of gradual protections – the same customers definitively to the best offer available on the free market.
Hera welcomed the outcome by relying on a note in which it underlines that it will strengthen its presence in various Italian regions with particular attention to the North: Emilia-Romagna, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Marche, Tuscany, Abruzzo, Lazio, Umbria, Liguria, Piedmont, Lombardy and Campania. “By further consolidating its position as the third operator in the sector, the Hera Group reconfirms itself as a reference energy player on the national scene”. The two lots of Iren they include ten provinces for 340 thousand new customers: look to the South in particular to Salerno, Taranto, Potenza, Brindisi and Matera; and then in the areas of Cosenza, Foggia, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Campobasso and Isernia. The net balance of the outcome of the procedures is positive for 260 thousand customers, “which allows the Group to significantly advance on the path towards the objective set in the industrial plan of 2.6 million customers by 2030”. Edison looked in particular at the South and A2A.
In the first case – according to the table published by the Authority – with significant discounts for the acquisition of the relevant lots in Sicily, Calabria, Campania, Puglia and Tuscany. In a note, Edison specified that it had “awarded all the four lots it was aiming for and for which it had submitted the offer, acquiring the possibility of serving approximately 700,000 new electricity customers within the framework of the gradual protections, in addition to the two million announced in 2023 and bring the company’s target of four million closer by 2030.”