Electricity: non-vulnerable customers, return to Greater Protection right always guaranteed if the request arrives by 30 June

The return to the Greater Electricity Protection service, for non-vulnerable domestic users, can be requested by the customer until 30 June. The date of receipt of the customer’s request through the channels, including telephone or electronic, indicated by the Maggior Tutela operator is valid. Arera’s clarification follows the Authority’s Recommendation to operators of the Greater Protection service of 23 February 2024, regarding information and usability of the methods for activating the service.

Non-vulnerable domestic electricity customers, who are currently on the free market, have the right to request a return to the Greater Protection service until 30 June 2024, to be transferred to the Gradual Protection Service. The request must be forwarded to the operator of the Maggiore Tutela service in the municipality where the supply is located. For those who do not know the name of the Maggior Tutela operator, the Authority reminds you that it has set up a specific page.

Greater Protection merchants must forward switching requests to the Integrated Information System according to the ordinary deadlines; in all cases the transition to the Gradual Protection Service will be guaranteed. Until the Gradual Protection Service comes into effect, the current contract will continue to apply.

As with all switching requests, continuity of supply will always be guaranteed and without any intervention on the meter. However, nothing changes for vulnerable domestic customers [1] served under Greater Protection who will continue to benefit from the same service even after the deadline of 1 July.

To ensure that all requests made by customers by 30 June are responded to quickly, ARERA reiterates to operators the greater protection of the recommendation to facilitate the transmission of contractual documentation by domestic customers, also through electronic channels that do not require forms of accreditation and/or via e-mail, and to limit as much as possible the time between the date of receipt of the customer’s request and the upload by the merchant, clarifying in particular that the customer has the right to waive the right to reconsider.

The Authority considered it particularly important to disseminate the clarification also in relation to the monitoring of offers relating to the first two months of 2024, which shows the absence of offers in the free market with a more advantageous energy price than that guaranteed by the Greater Protection service

Finally, ARERA recalls the web page, which can also be reached from the home page of the site, dedicated to the identification of the Maggior Tutela operator via a search engine that can be activated by entering the name of the Municipality. For further information on returning to Protection or to report difficulties with merchants, the toll-free number of the ARERA Energy and Environment Consumer Helpdesk is always available: 800 166 654.

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[1] Domestic customers who, alternatively:

• are in economically disadvantaged conditions (for example bonus recipients);
• are in serious health conditions that require the use of medical-therapeutic equipment powered by electricity (or where there are people in such conditions);
• are subjects with disabilities pursuant to article 3 of law 104/92;
• have a user in an emergency housing facility following calamitous events;
• they have a user on a smaller, non-interconnected island;
• are over the age of 75.