The free market is a flop and families see no benefit on their spending bills. He supports it Assoutientswhich carried out a study comparing the current offers of the operators electricity and gas sector streamlined main Italian cities via the dedicated Arera and Single Buyer portal.
Increases in gas and electricity
For gas, in no city are the free market options more advantageous than the vulnerability regime regulated by the Authority, which came into force on 10 January after the end of the protected market, according to the association’s analysis. Even the best deals available come with a spending up to 300 euros more per year per familyespecially to Catanzaro and Rome, which are the most affected cities.
Also for theelectric energywhich will see the end of the protected market on July 1st, the annual expenditure in the free market is higher, up to over 130 euros per family. Southern cities, along with the capital, pay the highest gas bills on the free market. In particular, considering the best fixed price offer available, a family with an average consumption of 1,400 cubic meters per year faces a higher expense than the average bill under the vulnerability regime (at the current rates set by Arera), which ranges from +111 euros per year per family in Milan, Trieste and Trento, to +305 euros in Catanzaro, up to +318 euros per year in Rome.
Below is the ranking of Italian cities based on gas supply offers on the free market (offers present as of 7.1.2024):
- Rome: 2,045.57 euros
- Catanzaro: 2,032.55 euros
- Palermo: 2,024.03 euros
- Naples: 1,972.44 euros
- Florence: 1,931.25 euros
- Turin: 1,927.99 euros
- Genoa: 1,927.99 euros
- Ancona: 1,913.75 euros
- Perugia: 1,889.82 euros
- Aosta: 1,885.92 euros
- Campobasso: 1,881.60 euros
- Bari: 1,881.59 euros
- Venice: 1,876.39 euros
- Power: 1,873.76 euros
- Bologna: 1,866.61 euros
- L’Aquila: 1,849.09 euros
- Trento: 1,837.18 euros
- Bolzano: 1,837.18 euros
- Trieste: 1,837.18 euros
- Milan: 1,816.66 euros
Prices on the variable
The situation does not change if we consider the best offers at variable prices. In this case, the average bill is lower than the fixed price, but the expense still remains higher than the vulnerability regime: the annual burden for a family ranges from a minimum of +19.4 euros in Trento up to a maximum of +230 euros in Rome, passing around +220 euros in Catanzaro and Palermo.
A similar dynamic is found in free electricity market. According to Assoutenti’s analysis, the best offer available on the portal is the same in all cities and provides, for a family with 3 kW of power and a consumption of 2,700 kWh per year, an average bill of 677.92 euros for the offers at a fixed price and 681.40 euros per year for those at a variable price. Compared to the tariffs of the protected electricity market, the annual expenditure in the free market is therefore higher by +131.44 euros for the fixed price and +134.92 euros for the variable one.
- Rome: 1,754.51 euros
- Catanzaro: 1,739.28 euros
- Palermo: 1,723.01 euros
- Naples: 1,679.17 euros
- Turin: 1,645.28 euros
- Florence: 1,641.86 euros
- Genoa: 1,638.60 euros
- Ancona: 1,624.35 euros
- Perugia: 1,607.11 euros
- Bologna: 1,604.42 euros
- Aosta: 1,603.20 euros
- Campobasso: 1,597.22 euros
- Venice: 1,593.67 euros
- Power: 1,589.38 euros
- Bari: 1,588.32 euros
- L’Aquila: 1,564.71 euros
- Milan: 1,554.46 euros
- Bolzano: 1,554.46 euros
- Trieste: 1,554.46 euros
- Trento: 1,553.61 euros
Assoutenti: “Extension necessary to return to gradual protections”
“The expected competition between operators is not seen – comments Furio Truzzi, honorary president and energy manager of Assoutenti – and not even a shadow of the reduction in tariffs that the new market should have entailed. All this in a context in which, from next July 1st, the protected electricity market will end, and users who decide to switch to the free market or who from the free market do not return to the Gradual Protection Service will suffer a significant increase in costs for electricity. For this reason we reiterate the need to extend the deadline within which users can move to gradual protections, simplifying and speeding up the related procedures”.
