this National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) shortage of staff warns of alarming situation It suffers and has problems as it deals with the barrage of new functions mandated by the government with new legislation to deal with the effects of the energy crisis. watch prices energy companies turn to their customers in search of abuse
During the last successive legislative reforms, the executive curb the impact of the increase on families and companies electric, gas and fuelsIt resulted in new authorizations for the CNMC, which triggered the Energy Directorate’s workload. The department already had a problem. lack of human resources and was depressed with new functions.
Given this situation, the body headed by Cani Fernández received a second staff increase in a few months from the Ministry of Finance to deal with the new control functions of the electricity and oil companies and not neglect their usual professions. Called for the creation of the CNMC 42 new locations It has been authorized by both parties to assume new powers in energy matters and to unite 38 troops so far.
The Executive Board of the Inter-ministerial Remuneration Commission (CECIR), which is fully subordinate to the Ministry of Finance as it also took over the Civil Service field, initially authorized the opening of 24 new civil servant positions and was subsequently further confirmed to El Periódico de España by sources from the CNMC. Like, add 14 worker workers.
more reinforcements
After the Treasury’s new approval, four more posts pending approval To complete the request made by the institution. The CNMC has not yet included the new reinforcements, but has just been authorized to create the positions and will open a selection process that will be called before the end of 2022. The current staff of the Energy Department consists of 115 employees.
from the competition template extension is not turned off be warned that further reinforcements will be sought from the Government if necessary. “CNMC will request the provision of human resources when new mandates are assigned that cannot be assumed with current staff, as in the case of new functions in the energy field”, confirm sources from the agency. .
Control over energy
As part of a legislative package to mitigate the effects of last year’s energy crisis, the government has avoid extraordinary profits by taking advantage of the price crisis (known as ‘heavenly benefits’) and ensuring that all implemented measures are properly implemented (such as a 20 cents-per-liter discount, among others). And a fundamental piece of that control and oversight structure fell to the CNMC.
In September last year, the government devised a system of cutbacks for electricity companies to avoid the potential extraordinary benefits of rising energy prices. The executive forced some of the nuclear, hydroelectric and renewable resources to return to the United States the extraordinary income they were supposed to have earned. sell your electricity at exorbitant prices on the wholesale market (increased prices due to increased gas and CO2 emission rights, costs that these technologies do not support).
Electricity companies mass mail thousands of contracts each month to show the terms and sales price they supply to customers with long-term bilateral agreements. get rid of cuts. The flood of contracts first reaches Red Eléctrica de España (REE), which is the operator of the electricity system and is appointed by the Government to calculate how much they will return each month, and then sends them to the National Commission. Markets and Competition.
Later, the Government used the macro-decree due to the war in Ukraine to review and create a system to reduce the extra income to include all contracts signed at high prices (over 67 euros per megawatt hour), taking advantage of anti-crisis measures. Special vigilance for big electric ones make sure the so-called ‘heavenly benefits’ are not hidden (‘expected profits’) result in the transfer of inflated prices to the final customer along the chain of contracts between companies in the same group.
CNMC also had to ensure that all gas stations correctly apply the 20 cents-per-liter discount for all drivers, which has been decided by the Government to stop the rise in fuel prices. And other extra tasks fell to the CNMC, such as an urgent recalculation (Recore) of the fee for thousands of renewable utilities tied to a yield guaranteed by law, or a new calculation of how the cost of the electricity social bond will be distributed (discount for vulnerable households) among all companies in the industry.