Have households finished with the increase in the regulated electricity sales tariff (TRVE)? While the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) projects a 10% increase in the TRVE for January 2024, before application of the tariff shield, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, has already already ruled out this scenario. “An increase in electricity prices of 10 to 20%, as indicated by the president of the CRE, at the beginning of 2024 is excluded”declared Thursday, September 14, Mr. Le Maire to journalists.
Revised twice a year by the public authorities, EDF’s “blue tariff”, as it is commonly called, has already jumped in 2023: + 15% in February, then + 10% in August, after application of the tariff shield, a cap established by the government.
At the start of 2024, the new increase should be around 10%, “under current market conditions, before possible application of a price shield”specified the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) in a press release, Thursday September 14, after a question asked on this subject at a press conference. In other words, the increase to be paid, ultimately, by consumers should in any case be lower than this percentage. “We have to wait until the end of the year before having a solid calculation”had taken care to declare Emmanuelle Wargon, president of this independent administrative authority, on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Low availability of the nuclear fleet
Despite the European liberalization of the energy market, the regulated tariff still concerns a majority of French households. Its successive increases reflect the gradual end of “tariff shield”put in place to preserve the purchasing power of households.
Through this system, by compensating the difference with suppliers, the government has capped electricity prices at + 4% during the year 2022. All this, in a particular context, both marked by low availability of the French nuclear fleet and by uncertainties, linked to the war in Ukraine, concerning Russian gas supplies.
In 2023, more than a year after the detection of a corrosion problem on certain pipes, the production of nuclear power plants remains at a historically low level compared to the past decade. In February, when the executive limited the increase in the “blue rate” to 15%, it would have been 99% without the “shield”.
In France, the price per kilowatt hour paid by individuals was 27 cents on average in June (all taxes included), according to the Household Energy Price Index, a study coordinated by the Finnish company VaasaaETT. This is less than in the United Kingdom (46 cents), but more than in Spain (nearly 19 cents), a country in which a price cap is also in force.
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