«Rates will also drop in the next quarter»

The price is further deflated bills: good news for families, who have had to break their piggy banks in recent months to face price increases. After the -19% recorded in December for the first quarter of 2023, the trend in energy bills for the second period of the year also promises to be beneficial. In the second quarter of the year, according to theHe is nurturing, your electricity bills could drop more than 20%. Thus Stefano Besseghini, number one of the Authority: «There will also be a drop in the next quarter, which will be realistically significant, over 20%. We can see the trend in prices, there is an objectively very strong decrease which began in the last ten days of December, remained intense in January and is now decreasing anyway».

Electricity bill down in April: towards a 25-30% cut. But there is the unknown factor of expiring aid

Let’s do the math. «A 20% reduction would mean that the annual bill, for a typical protected family that has an average electricity consumption of 2,700 kWh per year and a committed power of 3 kW, would drop from 1,434 to 1,147 euros, with a drop of 287 euros on an annual basis», said Marco Vignola, head of the energy sector of the National Consumer Union.

For Besseghini, taking into account the falling energy prices, it would be right at this point «to modulate the effects of government aid». That is to say? «I believe that evaluations are being made between the various possible options – explained the president of Arera – it must also be said that the general economic situation is different from January 2021, when the escalation of prices began: inflation has bitten much more and the operators themselves have been exposed much more. There are several effects to balance ».

As for the gas price for March, which will be set at the beginning of April, “it will probably still drop slightly, but having made a big leap between January and February it is unlikely that it will make another one”, added the president of the ‘Regulatory authority for energy, networks and the environment. “Today we are around 40 euros per megawatt hour, I am not saying that we are at historical values, but we are much closer than before”.

THE SIGNAL

For the Codacons, the government must give a signal on the zeroing of system charges, a measure which will expire on March 31st and which, in the absence of an extension, could lead to a sudden increase in tariffs as early as April, considering that the system charges, at full capacity, account for around 22% of Italians’ electricity bills. «In the event of failure to extend the measure on system charges, the reintroduction of charges and VAT would cost 386.37 euros per year per family, leading the electricity bill to grow, starting from April, on the basis of current tariffs, by +27 %», argues Assoutenti. Finally, the president of the consumers’ association, Furio Truzzi, asks the government to extend the cut in VAT and system charges until the electricity and gas tariffs have returned to the 2020 values.

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