Over 70% of applications for new supply contracts electricityfrom consumers moving to a new provider, concern fixed (blue) tariffs, supply market sources report to APE-MPE.

The tendency of consumers to orientate towards fixed tariffs is dictated by the formation of their prices at attractive levels in relation to the floating ones (green and yellow) which are more expensive due to the energy crisis in combination with the assurance of predictable energy costs for the coming months.

Prices for fixed tariffs according to the data of the Regulatory Authority start from 8.5 cents per kilowatt hour which is 44% cheaper than the 15 cents that is the green tariff target with the subsidies the government will likely need to pay to hold prices in December. According to the Authority’s data (https://invoices.rae.gr/oikiako/), seven fixed invoices are currently available on the market with a price lower than 10 cents per kilowatt hour and another 8 below 15 cents, for a duration of 6 to 12 months and fixed from 5 to 10 euros per month. Consumers can choose the most advantageous offer depending on the characteristics of their consumption (for example, if consumption is low, a large fixed charge increases the final burden more than services with a higher consumption).

Market sources reported to APE-MPE that with the implementation of the new European Directive, fixed tariffs will not be able to have a duration of less than one year, which means that six-month fixed tariffs will have to be launched on the market as floating (yellow) in which moreover, there is no early exit clause if the consumer chooses to “break” the contract before its expiration.

The same sources also stated that despite all this, the great majority of consumers remain on the “green” tariffs to which the entire market was transferred last year, probably because a part of them does not have the required information on market developments.

In the meantime next week, after the announcement of the “green” December tariffs by all suppliers is completed by Monday, the government’s decisions on subsidizing consumers will be finalized so that the charge on the “green” tariffs will be close to 15 cents per kilowatt hour. The average wholesale price of electricity on the Energy Exchange for November was formed on Friday at 138 euro per megawatt hour vs 90 cents in October (up more than 50 %). However, at the retail level there are also tendencies to hold down prices due to competition.

PPC has already announced that it is proceeding with the application of discounts of 68% in order to bring the final price for the “green” tariff to 15.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, while Protergia announced the maintenance of the tariff at the levels that applied from July to October (15, 9 cents per kilowatt hour) without the additional discount that applied in November.