Some municipalities are now faced with astronomical increases in their electricity bills. This is particularly the case of the municipality of Saint-Prex (VD), which has decided to file a complaint with the Competition Commission.
Very upset against the increases imposed on it by its power supplier, the Vaud municipality has also decided to bring its case before the Price Supervisor.
Jan Von Overbeck, municipal in charge of energy for Saint-Prex, is convinced that part of this increase, which amounts to 1600%, is speculative. Instead of spending 70,000 francs, the municipality’s bill will thus amount to 1.3 million.
“This increase is out of all proportion and benefits energy providers. The inhabitants of the town do not have to pay the price,” he protested on Wednesday in Forum.
“The market no longer works”
If many other municipalities do not know the situation of Saint-Prex, it is because they have not chosen the free electricity market as the municipality of Vaud did.
As a public authority, shouldn’t Saint-Prex have opted for security instead? “I am in favor of a free market, but you have to have a functioning market. However, this is no longer the case”, replies Jan Von Overbeck. According to him, these price variations are simply no longer correlated with the reality of production.
No planned tax increase
Since 2009, large customers whose annual consumption is equal to or greater than 100,000 kWh have been able to freely choose their electricity supplier. The idea was to allow companies or communities to compete and benefit from lower prices.
For the time being, the increase in taxes for the citizens of Saint-Prex is not on the agenda. “We still have until mid-December to negotiate. Measures will also be taken by the municipality, such as the express installation of solar panels,” he says.
>> Read about it: Municipality by municipality, the map of electricity price increases in 2023
Esther Coquoz/hkr