From 1 May new increases for electricity bills, but is it really the fault of renewables?
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himMore price increases e increase in bill for the costs ofelectric energy. In fact, from 1 May we will pay 4,3% more, with an average increase of 21 euro per year. From bad to worse, given that this increase in expenditure is in addition to that approved by the Aeeg about a month ago regarding the second quarter of 2012.
At the time, the Authority had explained that each family would have spent 27 euros more, not counting the direct incentives for renewable sources and assimilated, which would have burdened for a further 4% of the bill. And the so-called componente A3.
What changes? Since last Tuesday, the reference price of'electricity will be 19,09 euro cents per kilowatt hour, including taxes, while the average annual expenditure of the typical resident family, with consumption of 2.700 kilowatt hours and committed power of 3 kilowatts, will be approximately 501 euros.
The increases in bills, at least in relation to componente A3, seem to be associated with renewables. The president of the Authority, Guido Bortoni, underlined that “the objective at the time was to draw the attention of public decision-makers to the need to review some parameters of the incentive mechanisms, as some energy policy indicators were almost achieved. From that moment the public decision-maker has started a process for a renewed programming of incentives, in a path of general consistency to reconcile the sustainability of the bills with the legitimate interests of the subjects active in the green economy".
In view of the increases, Consumers Association calculated the average expenditure for energy, which will exceed the historical record reached in 2008. And if in 2011 the annual expenditure stood at around 436 euros, with the repeated increases recorded this year and with a further increase of 21 Euro from 1 May, the figure will rise to 501,58 euros, a good 64,7 euros more than last year (14,8%). And new increases are feared starting from July.
Have the incentives for renewables really raised our bills? The associations strongly deny it. The senators of the Democratic Party Francesco Ferrante and Roberto Della Seta, already a month ago they proposed a bill to reform the structure of bills, eliminating the 4 billion of improper charges, contributions for waste incineration and nuclear power and subsidies to steel mills.
According to what is read in the Fatto Quotidiano, the general charges of the electricity system, which also includes component A3, they account for approximately 7% of total gross expenditure but also include financing for energy-intensive industrial users, including Ferrovie dello Stato and companies such as Alcoa, but also the dismantling of old nuclear power plants, research costs and electrical bonuses. But Federconsumatori, in order to lighten these costs, hopes that the Government will modify the mechanism of support for renewable sources, which would affect "under the heading of system charges for 16% on household electricity bills". The latter, according to Federconsumatori, should be paid through general taxation.
“Also - he claims Mauro Zanini, Vice President of the association - it is necessary to carry out further cleaning in the 'system charges' in the bill for items improperly counted among renewable sources, such as the disposal of old nuclear power plants and to promote greater competition in the market also in the retail sector (substantially asphyxiated ) and infrastructural interventions on the 'electrical distribution network' ".
Francesca Mancuso
