News about electricity and natural gas bills. Energy, networks and environment regulatory authority Arera has approved some rules on contracts that will come into force from 1 January 2025. Suppliers in particular are expected to follow some specific procedures for reporting any price changes. The new rules were included in a ruling and are intended to raise greater awareness among consumers. Briefly, what changes are happening? Any increase must be notified at least three months after it comes into force. However, in case of a discount on the price applied to the customer, one month’s notice may be sufficient. These periods are valid for unilateral changes and renewals, not for automatic price changes.
Electricity and gas bills: New rules for forwarding increases from 2025
Let’s clarify. Unilateral change occurs when the supplier – after the contract has started – notifies the price change due to changing market conditions. Renewal occurs when suppliers offer offers that are economically very advantageous but for a limited period of time. They send a price update notification, which means renewal, within ninety days from the end of the period. In this case, customers will already be informed about the automatically generated price changes. In fact, suppliers in the free electricity and gas market usually indicate the type of price applied at the time of signing the contract, starting from the thirteenth month.
Specifically, communication regarding the price change must be sent by a “durable means,” such as a letter or file sent via certified email. In the latter case, the subject of the email must match the subject of the communication regarding the price change. If you need to inform the customer about a price change, it is important that the communication is aimed solely at this; therefore it is not possible to include this information in invoices.
What are the rights of customers
Changes in contract conditions or renewals with price increases cannot be implemented unless notified within the expected time and manner. Therefore, supply must continue under previous conditions. The customer is also entitled to automatic compensation of 30 euros in case of a late notification of change. Finally, Arera determined that the person sending communications and having them delivered must now be the seller, not the user.
Invoice prices in the coming months
Meanwhile, Arera President Stefano Besseghini also expressed his views on the course of the bills in the coming period. “I don’t think we’re going to see dramatic things in the short term, if we mean next year,” he said, “but when it comes to a longer perspective,” he said, “the choices we make about strengthening the infrastructures that we need to build over the next two or three years to consolidate the inevitable component of renewables.” According to Besseghini, “we cannot afford to interrupt the race we have started towards renewable energy, especially in the medium term.” “We have an expensive but very efficient mix of gas and renewable energy.”
Even the Minister of Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, expressed cautious optimism about prices during the Confindustria Energia meeting in Rome: “We are quite calm about gas and electricity bills for this winter. We have gas, storage. There should be no big problems. It all depends on the gas price.” “But thanks to storage, we can easily cover this this winter.”
Source: Today IT
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
