On 30th January the energy minister Kostas Skrekas announced new energy subsidies for the month of February, which will be at a lower level than previously since the prices from electricity suppliers have fallen by 65 per cent compared with last month.
“Today, we are in a period of drastic de-escalation of international prices for natural gas as a result of the institution of a European cap on gas prices,” he said. He pointed out that it was the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who had first proposed in March 2022 that the EU should impose a realistic cap on gas prices, to restrict profiteering in the international markets. Reviewing the government’s efforts to support Greek consumers to date, Mr Skrekas said that so far the government has spent a total of €8.2 billion supporting consumers’ electricity bills. He then announced the following figures for February.
Subsidies for domestic consumers
For all supplies to primary and non-primary residences and regardless of income, consumers of up to 500 KWh per month will receive a subsidy of €40 per Megawatt/hour (MWh), or 4 cents per KWh. Ninety per cent of Greek households fall into this category.
Consumers of more than 500 KWh will receive the same subsidy so long as they have reduced their average daily consumption by 15 per cent by comparison with the same period last year.
Households enrolled in the Social Residential Tariff will receive a subsidy of €88 per MWh.
Subsidies for commercial consumers
Commercial consumers with low- medium- and high-tension supplies will all receive a subsidy of €20 per MWh. For farmers the subsidy will be €40 per MWh.
The total amount of subsidy available to domestic, commercial and agricultural consumers for the month of February is €95 million.
It has been clarified that domestic consumers of over 500 KWh per month will still receive the subsidy on the first 500 KWh consumed, regardless of whether they have reduced their consumption.
There will be no subsidy for consumers of natural gas.
(Ministry of the Environment and Energy)