Greek Government will announce the extension of subsidies for electricity bills in the first few months of the new year, with priority being given to vulnerable consumers, using property assets as a criterion in order to exclude holiday and secondary homes.
The measures are related only to January for now, but will be adjusted according to to the price movements and the state’s financing capacity. For January, the Government plans to offer the biggest possible coverage for households or even all domestic consumers. This will depend on the available resources, which will come from the CO2 emissions auction, with estimated revenues this year of 1.5 billion euros.
The Government further intends to support small and medium-sized enterprises that have taken a hit from the massive rise in electricity prices. To this end, the Energy Ministry has proposed a special mechanism for subsidizing bills to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition.
Regarding natural gas consumers, after months of talks, Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) and Russian Gazprom have reached an agreement on prices, so that the gas supplied to Greece this year will rely by 80 % on the market price and 20 % on oil rates. The balance will shift to 85-15 % next year, with a further adjustment on that pattern for the years up to 2026, when the existing contract expires.
DEPA has therefore managed to contain the Gazprom requirements from the original 100 % on the gas market rate to just 80 % for this year,
while retaining unchanged the agreed quantities of 2 billion cubic meters per year.
This agreement paves the way for more support to households and energy intensive industries from DEPA in the first few months of 2022. The company’s management will determine the exact support measures by the end of the month. DEPA already offered a 16 % discount to household gas bills in October and November and a 40 % discount in December.
