The blow on the bill arrived What to do now to “save yourself”

The announcement is already a few months ago, but now that the first ones have arrived bills consumers have realized how much the costs of their supplies have actually increased. Price increases 4.5% for the gas bill and up to 5.3% for the electricity bill; an important increase that affects all tariffs in the protected market and that will “weigh” on consumers’ portfolios for the next 3 months.

Analyzing the trend, i prices they returned similar to those of the corresponding quarter of 2019, but in a different economic context, considering that the country is in the midst of a pandemic that is having a very heavy impact on the pockets of Italians. Furthermore, according to 2020 data, these increases come in the face of a drop in demand for energy and gas by users, with a minus 6% on electricity and minus 7% on gas.

Second Arera (Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and Environment), the reasons for the increases would be linked to an increase in the price of energy raw materials: in the fourth quarter of 2020, in fact, the Single National Price is up by 15% compared to the third quarter, returning to the average levels of 2019. According to the ‘Autority, despite the increases at the beginning of 2021, the savings “reserve” accumulated by families with the drops caused by the effects of the pandemic should not be exhausted.

Consumer associations are on a war footing and Codacons they announced an appeal to the Lombardy TAR, denouncing the tariff increases as unreasonable and probably caused by “speculation on wholesale markets, prohibited by our legal system”.

Furthermore, there remains the question of the “advent” of free market that when it is finally fully operational for domestic customers and businesses, it should guarantee, through greater competition, a reduction in bill prices.

In any case, the increases in recent months remain and will affect the protected market – about half of domestic customers -; then better run for cover.

Dual fuel

As written in a previous article de IlGiornale.It, it could lead to a significant reduction in the cost of bills having a supply contract with a single operator for electricity and gas. This is the so-called Dual Fuel with which a joint supply with the same company is guaranteed, saving on bills on some costs including, for example, management costs.

Change of Operator

Another option is, once you are informed about the numerous offer comparison sites – choose one of the companies that offer the best prices by switching from the previous operator to a new one. If you do not want to change operator, you may be asked to renegotiate some contractual aspects. For example, as regards the electricity supply, switch to one single-hour rate or bioraria. In the first case, the price is the same for the whole day but if consumption were concentrated mainly in the first or second part of the day or on the weekend, then it would be a good idea to think about switching to bi-hourly rate which divides the day into bands with different prices. Costs generally decrease in the evening and on weekends while they increase in the hours, in the day and in the course of the day.

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