Electricity bills and end of protection, the auctions are coming to assign the 5 million customers: how they work – WWN

January 10th the protected electricity regime ends for almost 5 million consumers that, if in the meantime they have not chosen to switch to the free market, they will enter the so-called Gradual Protection Service (Stg). But that’s not the only news. The energy supplier of the Stg may not be the old one of the protection, but a new one. It has, in fact, been decided that supplies that leave the protected regime will be put to tender. Competing for customers who will leave the protection will be 19 operators, to be precise 16 energy companies and 3 consortia, who have passed the selection of the Arera Authority, which also established the rules of the auctions. How do auctions work? When will they take place? And when will it be known who won and therefore consumers will also be informed of the possible change of supplier?

Auctions on December 11th

The auctions will take place on 11 December and will be managed by Acquirente Unico, a public company belonging to the public GSE group. Arera did not communicate the names of the companies, which passed a selection process conducted by the Authority in order to be admitted to the tender. Customers were divided into 26 territorial areas. The 19 participating operators will be able to win a maximum of 30% of the areas. The competition will not be based on the price of electricity that the consumer will pay (because this will be linked to the PUN, the single national price of energy traded on the wholesale market managed by GME), but will take place on the equivalent of the marketing price ( in practice, whoever asks less to provide energy).

Single round auctions

The auctions will be held with a single-round, closed-bid system – explains Carlo Maciocco, an expert at Quotidiano Energia – and the provisional outcome will be communicated to the participants the following day (when the possible “reparation” auction will also be held for the areas remaining unassigned), while the definitive one will be published on January 10th. Regarding the characteristics of the offer, Arera has decided to set a maximum ceiling to avoid the procedure resulting in values ​​that are too penalizing for customers. Conversely, despite the sellers’ requests, the Authority decided not to set a “floor”, i.e. a minimum value.

You win on the downside

So in fact the competition will take place on the basis of who offers the lowest prices, which could also be negative. If it goes like in the tenders for the 1.6 million micro-enterprises that took place in December 2022 – explains Gionata Picchio, deputy director of Staffetta Quotidiana – the companies will compete to the bottom and therefore remain in the Service with gradual protections (and therefore not choose) it could save you money compared to the current rate. In fact, the alternative for end customers will be between a less than competitive outcome of the auctions, in which little will change compared to the current protection regime, and a very competitive outcome, in which their situation will improve.

Bank direct debit

The concrete transition to the TSG and to the possible new supplier will occur on April 1, 2024. Consumers will be notified by the companies. And here is a step that those who have direct debit for their bills must pay attention to. In fact, if the supplier changes, the domiciliation will also change. To avoid bills not being paid by mistake, the government has planned to introduce simplifications regarding the transfer of bank direct debit.

Corriere della Sera also on Whatsapp. sufficient click here to subscribe to the channel and always be updated.