On December 31, the 6,700 communities of owners with community gas boilers will have to say goodbye to the Last Resort Rate (TUR 4) that allowed them to reduce their bills. It was a concession that the Government included in the More Energy Security Plan of October 18, 2022, along with a set of measures to reduce the impact of the escalation in gas prices derived from the Ukraine crisis and which skyrocketed the bills of many. homes.
In the next month and a half, owners with central gas boilers in their buildings whose annual consumption exceeds 50,000 kWh will have to address the complicated process of deciding on an alternative rate on the free market.
“This is what the law requires, but it also establishes a transitional period during which communities must pay a 20% surcharge for both the fixed and variable terms,” explains the OCU Consumer Organization.
Added to the tedious work of tracking the market in search of an affordable gas rate is the uncertainty of whether this measure will be prolonged or not. The Minister for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has been in favor of maintaining the measures adopted to alleviate the effects of the energy crisis in recent weeks.
But the political times are against them. These measures were approved by a royal decree law justified by the urgency of the impact of the escalation in gas prices and “only a similar situation could justify their extension,” according to sources in the sector. It does not seem easy, since in October 2022, the price of gas in the reference market (the TTF) was around 170 euros before the aid was published, but now it does not reach 50 euros.
So any expansion by the new Government will have to wait for new processing. In the meantime, two basic options remain. “With current market prices it would be cheaper to pay the 20% surcharge,” they say from the consulting firm Selectra, but they insist that it would only be temporarily.
“The main thing is to compare with the marketers which is the lowest rate, according to consumption, although the most advisable thing is to sign a price now and have it activated on January 1 (this is known as future activation),” adds Borja. Osta, deputy director of Selectra.
“That is, you leave it stable and signed so that billing begins on January 1 – he continues –, and thus you make the most of the subsidized price, until the end of the year when it is enabled.
