From April 1, the regulation to reduce electricity costs for farmers and for energy-intensive industry is in operation.
The amendment was tabled yesterday in Parliament by the Minister of Environment and Energy, Theodore Skylakakischaracterizing it as absolutely necessary for the productive capacity of the country, in the coming years.
The minister described, in detail, the benefits that will accrue to farmers who will join the regulation, which will come into force from 1.4.2024.
The most important of these include securing lower electricity prices, in the medium and long term, for farmers and settling their overdue debts.
Among other things, the minister noted that “the regulation is very long-term and has a zero interest rate. It is an extremely favorable arrangement – and it allows the providers and primarily PPC, which has most of these benefits – to be able to make a good offer.
The 9.3 cents per kilowatt hour, at the moment, does not even exist as a monthly offer, despite the fact that we have a very favorable period for electricity during this period.
Energy-intensive industries
Regarding the comment that the electrical space is shared, the minister clarified: “It is not exactly shared. It has a serious cost to create. That is, it is not something that we can use and it is for common use. It costs too much.
And this prioritization is necessary to keep our production base both in the primary sector and in the energy-intensive industries, which have the following very serious difficulty: there are large subsidies made, in the last year, by the United States and European countries in the energy-intensive industry their. And it is necessary to maintain competitiveness, giving the tool of the electrical space as a priority to energy-intensive industries.
This priority allows and it is very important to have good offers from providers. Until now, the incumbents, those who had the opportunity and had electrical space at their disposal, have not proceeded with favorable bilateral contracts towards the industry.
On the contrary, the industry complains that there is no willingness on the part of the producers to offer these bilateral contracts, which is why we are taking this initiative.”
In particular, according to iefimerida, for industry it is foreseen that, in principle, existing bilateral agreements take precedence (which have a reflection in existing RES projects), “because, as he explained, it would be absurd to make a measure for industry and the industries which, already, are served to be treated more negatively than the rest”.
In addition, as he clarified, if there is an excessive number of contracts, “then we will put the electrification time as the dominant criterion. The sooner you electrify, the sooner the contracts will start and the sooner there will be competitiveness.”
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