About 600,000 households in many tens of thousands of apartment buildings, chose years ago to change the central heating burner by switching to natural gas.
Back then, natural gas prices were up to 50% lower than their oil equivalents, and the payback of the “investment” for changing the burner, installation and connection to the grid could be done in record time.
But we have reached August 2022 and now the price of natural gas has gone from being an “advantage” for the apartment building to a burden. In August 2021, a kilowatt hour of natural gas cost just 3.5 euro cents.
This year, it costs 17 cents (wholesale). However, since natural gas pricing is based on the price of the previous month, for September the “explosion” of the international price to 320 euros per megawatt hour will be passed on to retail. Bills with these rates will reach single-family homes and multi-family homes in October.
The amounts may not be explosive as the heating is off and the only consumption (if any) concerns cooking and hot water. But when the managers of the apartment buildings and the tenants of the single-family houses see the price per kilowatt-hour, they will be alarmed as they will now be a few days away from the “opening” of the heating for this winter season.
There are already many apartment buildings that, since last year, have decided not to turn on the central heating because of the high price. The number is expected to multiply as we are now talking about four times more expensive than last year’s already inflated prices.
250 euros per month for an apartment of 120 sq.m.
A very well-insulated apartment of 120 square meters will end up paying 250 euros per month just for natural gas, while without adequate insulation, the cost can even jump to… 600 euros per month. Of course, the cost also depends on the weather conditions that will prevail.
The question now is what scope does the state budget have to support households on this front as well. Since electricity absorbs… billions every month, the scope for subsidies is not endless.
The subsidy per kilowatt hour of gas will continue (30 euros per megawatt hour is given by the Energy Transition Fund and discounts from DEPA) but these are now minimal considering that the price of natural gas has shot up to 320 euros.
The issue of heating is expected to be included in the Prime Minister’s package at the TIF so that households can have a complete picture and decide how exactly they will meet their heating needs.
Source: TheTOC
Source: Capital
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