Decoupling the price of gas from electricity and reducing demand are the lines of work proposed by the European Commission's energy experts to carry out an emergency intervention in the markets to help lower the price of electricity. The document of the community technicians, to which La Vanguardia has had access, analyzes different possibilities to alleviate the situation but warns that none will have the capacity to bring energy prices to pre-crisis levels “or eliminate the significant effects it has on inflation and the economy”.
Thus, the first measure that the technicians of the European Commission absolutely recommend is "a coordinated reduction in demand" for electricity, especially in the most expensive hours. Something similar to what has already been done with gas, with national savings targets that will be voluntary and, in the event of a shortage, may become mandatory.
Brussels has examined a wide range of intervention measures in the market and has come to the conclusion that most of them would end up encouraging energy consumption, thus increasing the risk of shortages in the medium term, just what it wants to avoid. The system it proposes is based on three pillars.
The first, contain the demand. The second, apply a variant of the so-called "Iberian exception" that has allowed lowering the price of electricity in Spain and Portugal but acting not on gas but on renewables. And the third, dedicate the extra income obtained in this way to the expansion of regulated rates or support measures for vulnerable consumers.
In view of the stratospheric prices that gas has reached, community technicians are now committed to intervening in the market to suspend the link between its price and electricity, whose final price depends on the price of this fossil fuel, although this is largely generated by cheaper technologies, such as renewables or nuclear power.
Instead of putting a cap on the price of gas, as the "Iberian exception" roughly does, whose literal Europeanization Brussels advises against because it does not encourage saving, the technicians propose limiting what companies can earn for the electricity produced from renewable energies. renewable, hydraulic or nuclear. His proposal is to set a limit on the income of inframarginal generating plants (those that use renewable, hydraulic or nuclear energy) and, based on that figure yet to be determined but which will be set at the European level, divert that money to public coffers. A collateral effect of this intervention system would be the abolition of taxes on extraordinary profits for energy companies, such as those approved by Spain and other countries, since they would not exist.
That money would be directly assigned to the Governments, which "could be forced to share it with electricity consumers to lower their electricity bill," explains the 23-page text. Thus, the third track that Brussels proposes to explore is to dedicate these funds to measures to support consumers.
The working document evaluates the pros and cons of these and other intervention measures and opts for those already mentioned. Several sources insist, however, that the debate "is very open" and changes or hybrid solutions are not ruled out. The reflections of the technicians will be debated in the extraordinary council of European energy ministers on September 9. When it is clear where there is consensus, the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will present formal proposals to carry out the announced “emergency intervention in the markets”.
