At the end of the previous year, the government introduced a new shield of anti-crisis measures. These include fresh forms of reductions on electricity and gas bills, along with initiatives aimed at softening the impact of rising energy prices on households. Two of these measures are genuinely new and provide direct aid to specific households to lower their electricity and gas expenses, but they have not yet taken off fully.
The administration unveiled a new type of electric social bonus not targeted at the most vulnerable alone, but designed to offer temporary relief to a broader group. It provides a 40% reduction on the electricity bill for middle-class customers. This discount is available to households with regulated electricity tariffs and an annual income threshold ranging from 27,700 euros for families with two adults and two young children, down to 16,800 euros for a single adult.
The government has stated that up to 1.5 million households could benefit from this temporary discount. These costs are funded by the electricity companies in proportion to their market shares and are reflected on the invoices of all customers. To date, only about 9,000 households have received the new social bonus, as reported by a national newspaper drawing on information from the Ministry of Ecological Transition. The executive team, however, noted a substantial rise in beneficiary numbers, with around 6,700 new registrations last month.
Tariff for neighboring communities
Progress on a new subsidized gas rate for owner communities has been slower than expected. This rate is intended to lower the bills for centrally heated neighborhood blocks. Since the new batch deadline for the neighborhood TUR was introduced with roughly a 50% discount last October, fewer than 5,000 neighborhood communities have benefited. Each month, officials review the savings measures included in the Plan for More Energy Security, a plan approved recently by the minister for Ecological Transition.
Access to the newly regulated gas tariff for communities requires certain steps, notably the installation of a separate meter in every home before October and a guarantee that the community’s gas consumption does not exceed the three-year average. These requirements can complicate consensus among residents when deciding whether to adopt the new rate.
“Access to the newly regulated gas tariff for communities is progressing slowly. It does not yet reach 5,000 customers,” the vice president noted, while emphasising that gas trading companies have told the Ministry that interest is growing among potential buyers. A month earlier, 2,300 owner communities had already signed contracts for the new TUR. “This is a right that anyone can aspire to obtain, but it is up to the owners community as a whole to decide… The government’s job is to ensure that no one who could benefit remains unaware of its existence.”
Confronted with the cautious rollout of the neighboring-communities tariff, major energy companies continued transferring large numbers of their individual customers to regulated natural gas tariffs. This shift followed government-backed support aimed at reducing bills during the energy crisis. After an initial surge in recent months, contract transfers have not slowed; they have actually intensified so far this year.
amid government aid, large energy groups were compelled to offer regulated rates. Notable providers such as Naturgy, Iberdrola, Endesa, and TotalEnergies added almost 200,000 new private customers to last-resort retailers in January alone, according to internal company data cited by a national newspaper. This marks another substantial wave in customer transfers, following roughly 550,000 registrations in regulated tariffs in the final months of the previous year, with prices set by the government and currently applying substantial discounts.
Major gas companies are responding to a real surge in demand to enter the regulated sector. It represents a complete reversal from recent years when the regulated tariff customer base had shrunk while free-market tariffs expanded. Overall, about 2.3 million customers now pay regulated prices, approximately 35% more than last summer. Nearly 6 million customers still use free-market gas tariffs, where prices are determined by the companies themselves.