Alerted by the Vaud municipality of St-Prex to the rise in the price of electricity, the Federal Price Supervisor is not in a legal position to intervene. After the complaint has already been filed by the Competition Commission (Comco), the Municipality will now turn to the Federal Electricity Commission (ElCom) and the Canton of Vaud.
Read also: Electricity: Saint-Prex opposes a 1600% increase!
The Lake Geneva municipality of 6,000 inhabitants, which plans a 1,600% increase in the price of electricity for its administrative buildings and schools in particular, considers that this increase is totally disproportionate and that the market “dysfunctions”. Hence his complaint at the end of August to Comco and then very recently to “Monsieur Prix”, Stefan Meierhans.
The Price Supervisor replied that he might not intervene on the price of electricity because the rules set are respected.
Jan von Overbeckmunicipal in charge of energy in St-Prex
“After a telephone exchange, the Price Supervisor very quickly replied to us with a letter on Thursday, stipulating that in the current legal framework, he might not intervene on the price of electricity because the rules set are respected”, indicated Friday evening at Keystone-ATS the municipal of St-Prex Jan von Overbeck, confirming information from the RTS.
“Our goal is not to sue, but to submit a problem to find a solution,” he explains. Mr. von Overbeck says he does not want to let go. The municipality intends to send a letter on Monday to ElCom, to the Conference of Cantonal Energy Directors and to the Vaud Council of State. “To find a real solution to a real problem,” insists the chosen one.
Fighting a speculative bubble
For the municipality, a large part of this increase is purely speculative. These price variations are not correlated with the reality of production, according to the Municipal Buildings and Energy, specifying that it does not question the principle of an increase, but not as exorbitant.
For its public buildings, St-Prex has been supplied since 2021 on the free electricity market. Its contract expires at the end of the year and the new one, valid from 2023 and not yet signed, provides for a 1600% increase in the price of electricity. The bill would then go from 70,000 francs to 1.3 million francs.
Since 2009, municipalities or SMEs that consume more than 100,000 kWh/year – the “big” consumers – might obtain all or part of their supplies on the free market and thus bring competition into play. This formula has enabled them in the past to often benefit from lower prices than on the regulated market. But the recent energy crisis has completely reversed the situation.
Why not return to the regulated market? A rollback is in principle not possible, according to the Electricity Supply Ordinance. The municipality of St-Prex would particularly like this non-reversibility to be reviewed.
