K. Skrekas: With the new invoices, consumers will understand how much the government is helping

K. Skrekas: With the new invoices, consumers will understand how much the government is helping

Assuring that “we are doing everything we can to support households in the energy crisis”, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Kostas Skrekas, clarified today that the invoices will clearly state the amount of the subsidy so that consumers can understand it.

During the meeting of the Production and Trade Committee – which had as its subject the approval of the results for the DEDDIE projects throughout Greece and the selection of contractors for 37 contracts – the responsible minister answered about the government’s measures to deal with the energy crisis and explained why changes the system to how electricity is priced, since on July 10, energy companies are required to disclose kilowatt-hour prices for August, for the first time predicting the price.

Mr. Skrekas explained in this regard: “We are removing the readjustment clause, i.e. the automatic way that the MWh price changes every month. The readjustment clause is a mathematical formula (difficult for the consumer to understand) that determines the final price of the cost per kilowatt hour. We are abolishing this. The supplier is obliged by law to notify the price two months in advance so that citizens can know and choose the tariff they prefer. That is, they will know in advance the price they will pay and will not he learns later. And he will see next to him the amount of the subsidy”. In particular, he said that suppliers will inform in advance of the price they sell, as is the case with all products and services, that is, the entire price will be determined in advance and not, as was the case until now, a base price and an additional price that “played ” per day and which the consumer learns afterwards which it is.

The Minister of Environment and Energy pointed out that this way the consumer will see the amount of the subsidy on his account and will know in advance what he will pay next month. “That way he will realize how much this government is helping. Because the people in power means the people have choices,” he remarked.

After underlining that PPC should not have applied a readjustment clause, he mentioned that private providers had been applying it since 2019 and added: “The problem is big now and it is due to the huge international energy crisis. It is not Greece’s fault that natural gas has arrived at 150 euros, while when SYRIZA was in power we had the lowest prices of fossil fuels and we had zero growth. Now despite the huge energy crisis, we have growth.”

As he said in addition, Greece is the country that has invested the most money (3.6% of GDP) to absorb the extra costs from the energy crisis with subsidies. He explained that we may have a big increase in wholesale, but in terms of retail prices (which the consumer ultimately pays) Greece is cheaper than most western countries.

Recruitment – Tenders

The CEO of DEDDIE, Anastasios Manos, also attended the Committee meeting, who informed that the company will proceed with 1,000 recruitments by the end of 2022 as for many years it has not proceeded with any plan to replace the 1,500 staff it has leave

Regarding the tender for subcontracting throughout Greece for DEDDIE projects, the contractors are: Pyramis, Intrakat, Union Mechanodomiki Electromec, Union ERGOTEM-Europa EBIEK, EKTER AE -ERTEKA, Kyvos Techniki, SHS ATEE, Entelecheia, TES AE, Pylonas ATE -Balkan Electric, VIER ATE, Mytilineos, ELYROS SA and MALLIONTA ATE, ERGOTEM ATEVE, Europa EBIEK and TERNA SA.

Regarding the competition for digital meters, which is ongoing, Mr. Manos informed that there have been seven submissions from international companies, of which three-four are ranked among the top ten worldwide. He also emphasized that during the period 2014-2019 nothing had been done on the subject of smart meters and thus seven or eight years of complete inaction passed.

Source: Capital