There is a week left until the start of the free electricity market, an event that concerns around 5 million users. In reality, the number of customers on the protected market is double but half are destined to remain in this regime because they are “vulnerable”. This category includes: users over 75 years of age; those with ISEE not exceeding 9,530 euros (20,000 euros if the family unit has at least 4 dependent children and beneficiaries of Law 104. Among the “protected” also residents in the smaller islands not interconnected with the national network, those who live in emergency and those who have serious health conditions that require the use of medical-therapeutic equipment powered by electricity. By the end of this week, if they have not already done so, all of them must contact their managers Municipality of residence to request the activation of a specific user. It is sufficient to present a self-declaration which can be downloaded from the Offer Portal (www.ilportaledelleofferte.it) managed by Arera, the network authority, and by the Single Buyer.
For almost everyone else (those who are already on the free market will not be affected by the transition) the tune will change from July 1st. The electricity user has two options before him: sign a free market contract with any operator (in addition to the Offer Portal there is an anthology of comparison sites) or stay absolutely still and switch to the “gradual protection service”. On Thursday, Arera will announce the price adjustment of electricity bills according to the old rules. «It will be the last quarterly update as we have known them up to now, but in reality it doesn’t change much», explained the president of the Network Authority, Stefano Besseghini, recalling that «domestic customers who today are under greater protection will automatically switch in gradual protection without doing anything, while those who are free and wish to return to greater protection in order to be transferred to gradual protection will have to hurry and request it by 30 June”. It should be remembered that the date of receipt of the request by the energy company will prevail.
In the gradual protection service, the cost of the electricity bill will be calculated freely by the manager but with the contractual conditions of the Placet tariffs established by Arera. According to consumer associations, the gradual protection service is more advantageous than free market tariffs and allows savings of between 130 and 297 euros per year. The auctions to win “non-vulnerable” customers with greater protection were particularly hard-fought and operators sought victory through reductions.
Just to briefly recap: Enel was awarded, among other things, the municipalities of Milan and Rome and the provinces of Brescia, Mantua, Verona and Trieste. Illumia won Florence, Hera Bologna; Genoa and Bergamo, E.On Lecco and Brianza, Edison will have Bari and A2A the municipality of Naples, Palermo and Cagliari. From March to May only 26 thousand customers applied to re-enter the enhanced protection market and for this reason consumer associations asked for greater information on the possibility of “exiting” the free market.
The widespread hope is that the increased competition between operators could lead, as happened for telephony, to an overall reduction in bills. In any case, the gradual protection service will also have a transitory nature and from April 2027 the free market system will apply for everyone.
