The minister for the Environment and Energy Kostas Skrekas has announced new measures for supporting the community against the effects of the international energy crisis. The announcement of the subsidies for January’s electricity bills comes after a historic decision was reached by the Council of EU Energy Ministers to cap prices for natural gas at €180 per MWh, which is expected to have multiple benefits for EU citizens.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday 23rd December, the minister said that the measure was “both appropriate and necessary”. The data show that if the mechanism had been instituted earlier, the price cap would have been applied for more than 30 days this year, thus avoiding enormous extra costs for natural gas, especially during last August when the price exceeded €340 per MWh, ten times higher than in previous years.
In the meantime the government is continuing its subsidies for electrical power in January, which for households and businesses will reach a total of €840 million, i.e. double that spent in December. The major part of the money which will be made available in the coming month comes from taxes on the windfall profits of electricity producers and suppliers and from income from auctions held under the EU’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme.
Electricity subsidies for January – domestic tariffs
For all supplies to main and secondary residences, regardless of income and supplier, the following scales apply:
– For monthly consumption of up to 500 kWh, the subsidy is €330 per MWh. This category includes 90 per cent of households in Greece. The subsidy absorbs 87 per cent of the price increase.
– For monthly consumption of 501 to 1,000 kWh the subsidy is €280 per MWh. However, if the household reduces its average daily consumption by 15 per cent compared with the same period last year, the subsidy is increased by €50 per MWh.
– For monthly consumption of 1,001 KWh and above, the subsidy is €190 per MWh. This applies to only 2 per cent of Greek households. In this category also, there is an additional subsidy of €50 per MWh if consumption is reduced by 15 per cent.
Households which are enrolled in the Social Residential Tariff will receive 100 per cent of the increase, with their subsidy totalling €378 per MWh. The total value of the domestic subsidies for January is €470 million.
Electricity subsidies – commercial tariffs
For businesses with supplies of up to 35 kVa and consuming up to 2,000 KWh, the subsidy for January will be €292 per MWh, a figure which absorbs almost 80 per cent of the increase.
For professional and commercial users with supplies of up to 35 kVa and consuming over 2,000 kWh per month, as well as all the other non-domestic low-, medium- and high-tension tariffs , the subsidy is €134 per MWh.
For bakeries, regardless of supply voltage and for the whole of their monthly consumption, the subsidy is €292 per MWh. For farmers there is a flat rate subsidy of €330 per MWh, which absorbs 92 per cent of the increase.
As with the domestic tariffs, the greater part of the subsidy comes from windfall taxes on the producers and suppliers of electrical power applied by the Greek Government since last July, which have produced over €3.2 billion.
Natural gas – subsidies for domestic consumers
The national gas supplier DEPA, together with all other suppliers will give a flat-rate subsidy of €20 per thermal MWh. The measure affects 700,000 households, regardless of income, property size or supplier.