The Council of Ministers has approved this Tuesday the detail of another 18 measures of the 73 contained in the contingency plan sent to Brussels last week, called by the Executive as More Energy Security. As announced by the President of the Government last Thursday, it is a set of measures whose cost will be 3,000 million euros that will be covered by the general budget of the State and that if they are fully implemented they can lead to savings of between 5.1% and 13.5% in gas consumption.
The Royal Decree approved this Tuesday has focused on measures aimed at increasing the protection of consumers "including the middle classes", as Teresa Ribera pointed out this Tuesday at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, as well as new measures to promote to self-consumption.
The first package includes the creation of a new regulated rate for gas consumed by neighborhood communities that will allow average discounts of 50%, the cost of which will be broken down into sections according to consumption and that will be temporary, for the time being, until December 2023. According to Government estimates, 1.7 million households will be able to enjoy it as long as they comply with the revision of the boiler and install, before September 2023, an individual digital meter.
For the rest of the clients, the 15% increase cap is extended in the quarterly review of the current regulated rates TUR 1, 2 and 3 until December 2023. It will be the State, via general budgets, who will assume the cost of the measure to curb the tariff deficit that was being generated until now by charging it to the electricity system itself from the publication of the royal decree approved today. "It is capital that the maximum limit is maintained to give stability to families until that date," Ribera assured. Likewise, the Government will allocate an item of 40 million euros to encourage the replacement of digital gas meters in private homes and that the effort is free for the final consumer.
Another of the measures included in the royal decree approved this Tuesday is to enhance coverage for the most vulnerable consumers. To this end, the concept of vulnerable consumer should be broadened, including that of “low-income working households affected by the crisis”. Thus, households with two adults and two minors with incomes of up to 28,000 euros per year maximum income will be able to access the social bonus.
In other words, the criterion of 1.5 times the IPREM is extended as the current income ceiling up to 2 times the IPREM. This means that 1.5 million more households will be able to benefit from aid that represents a discount on the bill of up to 40%. The discount percentages are also increased to 65% for vulnerable households and up to 80% for severely vulnerable households. In addition, there will be 15% more energy subject to the discount. In total, according to estimates by the Secretary of State for Energy, 40% of vulnerable households will be eligible for aid.
The electricity bill that consumers receive will also undergo changes. As La Vanguardia anticipated, it will include information on the average consumption of neighbors with similar profiles to encourage consumption savings. Although it will be necessary to wait a few months for the CNMC to adequately coordinate, without personal data, the measure to channel this information from the marketers.
What will come into force next month will be a new electricity bill model that will include energy saving and efficiency recommendations, reliable and unified information (according to the BOE) on the impact of the measures implemented by the Government to lower the cost of electricity such as tax cuts and the impact of the Iberian exception.
"That there are no creative qualifiers by companies and offer information on the average price of the adjustment in the last calendar month so that we can all understand if the charge reasonably corresponds to what we pay. Again, consumer empowerment", has specified the vice president.
Finally, the Government has approved various measures with the aim of promoting photovoltaic self-consumption. The aim is to promote the maximum use of roofs and not encourage other forms of self-consumption that may have a greater impact on the ecosystem. In other words, aid for self-consumption of wind power or photovoltaic installations on the ground, for example, are excluded from these measures.
The most awaited measure is to increase from 500 meters to 1 kilometer the distance allowed to share the energy generated by a social installation. The Government has alluded to energy efficiency and prudence not to bet on the 2 kilometers that are limited by Portugal or France.
In addition, it responds to the demand of the sector to simplify administrative management for installations of up to 500 kilowatts. In turn, more than one holder will be allowed on the same cover and the concept of direct line in industrial facilities will be made more flexible. Whereas until now the generator had to be the same one that consumed it, now it can be shared with others.
Ribera at this point has insisted that "the objective is to promote self-consumption and not other types of businesses with small installations, which is why the area with which unconsumed light can be poured into the electrical system is limited to 1 km".
