There gas bill for users vulnerable fell by 0.9% in April. In recent days, Arera, the Authority for energy, networks and the environment, has in fact communicated the value of the raw material of the Gas Vulnerability Protection Service for the month of April 2024.
For the month of April, which saw wholesale prices rise compared to those recorded in March, the price of the gas raw material alone (CMEM,m), for customers in the vulnerability protection service, was equal to €30.49/MWh. The reference price of gas for the new typical customer, explains Arera, is equal to 100.54 euro cents per cubic meter (-0.9% on March), including taxes, due to the reduction from 1 April 2024 in the values of the component covering supply risks (CCR), the retail marketing component (QVD) and the transport component (QT), which compensate for the increase in the price of gas to cover supply costs.
Since January this year, the gas protection service has been replaced by the vulnerability protection service, intended only for vulnerable domestic customers. Since January, therefore, the Authority, with the same times and methods as in previous months, has published on the website the component of the gas price to cover supply costs applied to customers of the vulnerability protection service.
THE vulnerable customers in the gas sector they are domestic customers who are in at least one of the following conditions: they are over 75 years of age; are in economically disadvantaged conditions (for example, bonus recipients); are subjects with disabilities pursuant to article 3 of law 104/92; the user needs an emergency home following calamitous events.
Consumers: small savings
How do consumers react?
For the Codacons it’s about a “mini-reduction in gas bills for vulnerable users” considered “inadequate” because it will lead to a saving of only 10.5 euros per year on the bill considering a user with a consumption of 1100 cubic meters per year.
“The real problem, however, is represented by gas tariffs on the free market – explains Codacons – If for vulnerable users the drop in bills is almost invisible, for free market customers it is even worse: the rates are still high both for fixed price contracts and for those with variable prices, since, contrary to expectations, the long-awaited competition between operators capable of reducing gas bills was not generated”.
For the National Consumers Union, however, this is good news.
Explains Marco Vignola, vice president of the National Consumers Union: «Despite the increase in prices in wholesale markets, the price of gas for the vulnerable is falling. Although the savings are minimal, equal to 11 euros on an annual basis, is a demonstration of how regulated prices are still important to protect families’ wallets! The regret remains that the reduction could have been equal to 133 euros if the system charges and the old VAT rates had not been reimbursed at the beginning of the year. Without these increases, gas would have fallen by 12.8%.”
