Major energy companies continue to register large volumes of customer transfers to regulated natural gas rates, due to Government-enabled help to lower the bill amid the energy crisis. After the first avalanche in recent months, contract transfers have not stopped, in fact, they have intensified so far this year.
Main gas companies obliged to submit different offers regulated fares (tariffs of last resort, called TUR)), they are dealing with a real avalanche of demand to jump into regulated business. A complete trade reversal compared to the trend in recent years, when the customer base of regulated tariffs has shrunk and free market tariffs have grown.
In the heat of state aid, major energy groups added nearly 200,000 new customers to regulated gas tariff marketers in January alone., according to internal data of companies accessed by EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA from the Prensa Ibérica group. A new large customer transfer in addition to the nearly 550,000 registrations in regulated tariffs recorded in the last months of last year – price set by the Government and currently applying big discounts.
Naturgy, the main operator of the Spanish gas market, added 83,000 customers to its last resource supplier portfolio during January. The company, led by Francisco Reynés, confirmed that it had included 230,000 customers in its regulated gas tariff in 2022, of which 190,000 were concentrated in the last part of the year.
Iberdrola increased its regulated rate client portfolio with 70,000 new contracts in January. As confirmed by the company, the group has more than tripled the volume of TUR contracts in a four-month period, from 111,000 customers at the end of September to a total of 370,000 users at the end of last month.
Endesa, which currently does not detail the increase in its customers with regulated gas rates, expects to announce its financial results at the end of the month. The Enel subsidiary points out that its customer addition rate is slightly lower than it recorded in October and November, when, as a last resort, it added more than 30,000 new users to its retailer.
total energies confirms that the number of customers of the regulated rate marketer is growing rapidly. It tripled its contract portfolio in 2022, from 60,000 to a total of 182,000 at the end of December. And in January, the company added another 33,000 new customer records, totaling 215,000 contracts.
subsidized rates
Right now, About 2.2 million homes have regulated gas rates of more than 33%. It’s above the volume when the executive activated its last aid plan last October. However, the number of customers covered by the free gas market rates, whose prices are freely determined by the companies, is much larger than the number of customers of the regulated business whose prices are determined quarterly by the Government based on the evolution of international prices. hydrocarbons, but their increase has the maximum limit since last year. rates Mercado Libre is still the majority option and around 6 million customers they still hold on to them.
The government activated a million-dollar package of measures last October to lower the price of regulated gas tariffs. In practice, this means direct subsidies to the bills of those customers who charge from the big energy companies.
A Anti-crisis shield with 3,000 million euros in aid It plans to continue to limit by law the increases applicable to already over 2 million regulated gas tariff customers through 2023, and also to create a new type of discounted rate for homes with central heating in the neighborhood community (about 2,000 neighboring communities would now have joined).
CNMC investigation
The National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has launched an investigation into major gas companies to analyze whether they deliberately hindered large-scale transfers of customers to regulated gas rates when demand avalanches began.
The agency has activated an information file and requests periodic and permanent information from the client. Naturgy, Endesa, Iberdrola and Totalenergies About the technical and personnel resources used to deal with rate change requests, following many consumers’ complaints about waiting times, lack of information and difficulties in completing the contract.
Amid the avalanche of requests to change the rate, Competition decided to expand the investigation to watch for other possible fraudulent behavior linked to this customer transfer. As part of the same dossier, the CNMC included a specific oversight of whether energy companies violated new regulations mandating them to stop asking their customers for additional services (maintenance, emergencies, equipment overhaul…) when they change their services. company.
It is emphasized that customer service channels have been strengthened in recent months to meet the increase in demands from large energy companies and customers who want to move from the free market to the regulated market. registered in recent months. An improvement in procedures that are also clearly recognized by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
The industry wants reform
Companies in the gas sector are only warning of the consequences of measures taken to reduce one type of tariff. Gas companies are warned that the Ministry’s Ecological Transition assistance plan, which is for regulated rates only, could distort the market and threaten the stability of companies offering rates in the free market, and therefore pressure the Government to put pressure on it. Take measures to reduce the invoice for all customers, not just a part.
Employer sedigas Bringing together marketers, transport and distribution network companies, and suppliers in the industry – asked the Government to: allows any marketer to offer regulated gas rates or apply similar subsidies to free market rates. The government predicted that different alternatives are being explored to speed up client switching, but has not taken any action for the time being and the industry has denied that any reform will be approved in this regard.