Bills and energy alarm, the forecasts are certainly not encouraging, support for companies and families is crucial, the cause seems to be Russia’s stranglehold and the shortage of storage. Davide Tabanelli of Nomisma: ‘Gas tariffs are decided every quarter by Arera, on the basis of international prices, but these, after having remained calm for ten years, have gone crazy by mid-2021 and are now out of control. In the quarter October-December 21, the Arera tariff is 0.95 euro per cubic metre. But given the trend in the international markets, without state intervention to calm it down, in the quarter January-March 22 it will reach 1.40 euro’.

There are several reasons for this, according to the Institute: ‘The first is that inventories are low, because Russia is delivering less gas to Europe. Some because it wants to push on the North Stream gas pipeline ‘hopefully available in March’, some because it has transport problems as its network is very old.

Then there has been the recovery in production after the pandemic; China has increased its demand for gas to get off coal; energy companies are investing more in renewables and less in fossil fuels, but the demand for gas is not falling; wind and hydro in some countries have reduced production due to the weather’.

The repercussions on consumers and companies are therefore likely to be truly dramatic, in the meantime we await the next tariff update decided by Arera for the first quarter of 2022.

The numbers

The increases will be added to those of 2021, bringing in the course of the new year the expenditure of the typical family for electricity and gas bills to reach a record 3,368 euros per year, an increase of +1,227 euros compared to the expenditure incurred in the last year, according to Consumerism’s calculation.

‘A picture that would have a very strong impact on the pockets of Italians and would represent a massacre for families, since they are primary expenditures that cannot be renounced,’ denounces the association.

Confcommercio Lombardy echoes by talking of a billion and a half sting, in light of the pre-announced increase in the cost of energy for businesses, calculated by Confcommercio as +42% for electricity and +38% for gas in October alone.

According to the estimates of Confcommercio with Nomisma Energia, a typical shop could see its electricity bill rise by 6 thousand euros in a year, a restaurant by over 8,500 euros, a hotel by around 20 thousand euros, and so on for SMEs and large companies that, in the most serious cases, will see their bills triple, a particularly heavy obstacle for Italian companies that already pay a cost for energy that is 33% higher than the European average.

Sources: messaggero.it; businessweekly.it; nomisma.it; consumerismo.it; lanazione.it