This National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) He doesn’t want to put an end to private oversight of big companies in the natural gas sector. organism opened an investigation last October and by controlling the customer service they provide, it guarantees fluency in the mass transfer of users. regulated gas tariffs He’s looking for aid that the government has distributed to make them cheaper.
The millionaire aid package announced by the executive made a mess. flood of demands for contract changes towards regulated tariffs called last resort fees (ENG), which still exists. In just six months, a million homes replaced gas contracts, but in the early moments there were huge bottlenecks for energy companies to manage all demand, and complaints from many consumers were due to the very long initial waits, lack of it. difficulties in accessing information and contracts.
The competition then opened an information file to the four major companies responsible for offering these regulated rates (Naturgy, Iberdrola, Endesa and Totalenergies). The agency began requesting information that the four major gas companies send each month on the technical and personnel resources used to participate in the flood of requests, the number of calls answered and missed, the waiting times and the number of evacuations. applied.
The organization’s initial plan, led by Cani Fernández, was to request periodic information from the groups until April. Competition is currently trying to stay vigilant in the coming months, while a large number of customer transfers are in progress and will make the final decision on the matter in a few weeks. “Follow-up is likely to be prolonged in the following months, Although it simplifies the information to be sent to the CNMC, as confirmed by the official sources of the Commission to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA”.
there will be no sanctions
While waiting to decide whether to keep the information file open, the CNMC refuses to take the step of filing a disciplinary case against major energy companies, as EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA announced last February. Initiating a disciplinary case would require sufficient evidence that violations were committed, which would open the possibility of sanctioning groups.
HE information file It is the first step in the audit processes that the CNMC can conduct in regulated industries. In many cases, it serves as a notification to seafarers so that companies can correct their actions before initiating a disciplinary case. And in this case, the organism thinks it’s working.
“The CNMC’s priority when opening the fact sheet is to provide appropriate attention to the consumer wishing to contract at the regulated rate,” the agency states. “The audit result shows that consumer services services returned to normal as of the second half of November, due to the reinforcements made by companies, especially incorporation, in these channels. new telemarketer positions”.
CNMC is also considering the possibility of imposing on companies Permanent “preventive measures” To avoid further crashes in the future. In this sense, the agency plans to ensure that regulated rate marketers have an automated online contract channel easily available on the company’s websites, not just over the phone channels or in-person business offices, as has been the case before.
Flurry of customer changes
Large energy companies continue to record large volumes of customer transfers to regulated natural gas rates. state aid to reduce natural gas bill millions of homes have shaken and disrupted the market. This subsidies serve to reduce receipt by 40% The percentage of customers with regulated gas rates has made a historic commercial comeback, with nearly one million customers changing their contracts in recent months. However, they are still in the minority and less than a third of all customers have chosen regulated rates.
In the heat of government aid, major energy groups left 1.58 million TUR customers last September. Up to 2.5 million users, according to government data. Despite the massive transfer, the number of customers purchasing gas tariffs on the free market is still much higher, even though it is more expensive and has seen strong increases in the last winter months. Currently, some 5.7 million users maintain their contracts at free market rates.
As confirmed by the National Markets and Competition Commission’s (CNMC) price comparison tool, only 30% of all users have a tariff protected against strong increases, which is currently cheaper than all free market tariffs. combined action special state aid gas rates and the VAT reduction meant that a regulated household’s bill was about 40% lower than they would have paid without these measures.
The last quarterly price review applied to regulated gas rates effective April 1 resulted in an average of 29.9% decline over the next three months. The interruption caused by the sharp fall in fuel prices in the TUR calculation formula and the Government’s General Government Budgets (PGE) It takes on the accumulated debt with the industry by taking extraordinary measures to limit the impact of the war in Ukraine.
Energy companies themselves are aware that customers’ lack of information about different market options is the main reason why they maintain their prices despite market fluctuations. More than one 62% of customers admit they don’t know how much gas they’ve caught in their home. And according to the most recent CNMC Household Panel data, which coincided with mid-2022, when the energy crisis has raged for almost a year, more than 67% admit that they do not know the differences between regulated rates and those in the free market.