P. Skourletis: The government leaves the speculation mechanisms untouched

The measures announced by the government insist on a bonus logic that does not touch the super profits of electricity generation companies and burden, through the state budget, the Greek taxpayer. We need intervention in the mechanism of shaping the wholesale price and it remains to be seen how and if there will be such, from July. The energy crisis shows us that electricity can not be treated like any other market commodity, new rules are needed, said the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance, State MP, Panos Skourletis.

In an interview (Alpha 989) he said, among other things:

We insist on a bonus logic, which so far has not been able to intervene in the very mechanism of the wholesale market and speculation. This is what the government suggests that it will deal with it from July, so it is talking about an indirect intervention in the adjustment clause. At the moment, what is reproduced from yesterday in the news, that the adjustment clause is suspended, does not apply. We will see how, though, from July. “And if” refers, once again, to the next Summit to be held in May.

Everything you get is in a positive direction. From staying in the regulations that were in force until recently, they are moving in the direction of greater empowerment of consumers and businesses. This is objective. But beware, while it seems that a burden is being alleviated, albeit belatedly, despite the retroactivity the burden has been there. Businesses and households have been at a critical juncture all along. Some have been cut off from electricity, some have been borrowed to pay, there has been damage and no one should ignore it. The money for the new measures comes from the state budget, so instead of hitting the mechanism and limiting the super profits of the electricity producers, he comes and tells them to keep your super profits, but now you will not take them directly from the accounts of the consumers , a part of them I will give you from the taxes. Thus there is an indirect burden on Greek citizens. This has to stop.

The interconnection of prices with natural gas is part of a mechanism which in Greece was implemented by the SW in a different way than in other European countries, incompletely, and in this way made it even easier to drag energy prices – which produced from other sources – from natural gas.

In 2018, under the SYRIZA government, a European Directive was adopted regarding the obligation of the European member states to introduce the institution of the energy exchange in the national electricity markets. As a general direction, as a framework. The settings, the formatting, the mode of operation were different in each country. What was different here based on the directions of 2020, of ND? That we did not have the opportunity to have futures markets at the same time, so it is a daily market. The large supermarket chain, which with its freezers is a very large consumer, would have the opportunity to tell PPC at the beginning of last year, come here to make a contract, to lock a price.

The other big difference – that’s why I say one has to wait until July for how to specialize – is this: when the cost of generating electricity from gas is, say, a height of “a by 2” and of the hydroelectric plants we have in Greece is almost zero, what should we do? Find the average of this cost and say that this is the price. This is not done here. What does the mechanism do? It has been dragging in cheap energy from renewable energy sources, hydroelectric and lignite lately and pricing them on the wholesale market based on natural gas, instead of finding intermediate costs. This is a distortion that has existed from the beginning. During SYRIZA, all this was part of the framework we were working on.

In other countries, what we support has been put into practice, so they can not be opposed to the European context only for Greece. In the light of this energy crisis, there is a need for a comprehensive redesign of these mechanisms at European level. As we say about health, that after the pandemic we must revisit the public health system and support it, so even after the last energy crisis electricity must not be treated like any other market commodity. It is a common good, on which productive activity is based, other rules are needed.

Source: Capital

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