At the end of August, Gaz de Bordeaux customers whose fixed-price contracts were due to expire at the end of September received new contracts with spectacular increases, around 450% for some… Panicked, they created a facebook group to share their testimonies and the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE) asked the operator at the end of September to review its tariffs. These letters left before the amounts of the tariff shield of the State are known, explains Cyril Vincent, the director general of Bordeaux Gasincumbent operator in the Girondine capital, which explains this to 20 minutes.
Why were these letters with very significant increases sent to some of your customers?
It was a timing problem, we didn’t have the information on the amount of the shield when the letters were sent. It was only known at the beginning of September. At the end of August, these customers received a letter indicating the price as it should have been if the government had not put in place a price shield. Customers rightly said that was not possible. These amounts are not bearable and it is not for nothing that there is a tariff shield which was created by the State. We reassure them on a case-by-case basis when they call us, to explain to them that it is not the price that will be applied to them and that the shield applies.
What is the amount of the price shield discount for the month of October?
The Energy Regulatory Commission published it on September 27, and it is around 195 euros including tax discount, for the month of October. No customer will pay at the start of winter (until the period of effectiveness of the shield at least until the end of December) more than the regulated price in all these contracts concerned (whether he takes out in September, October or even November and December). We end up with discount amounts set by the state, much larger than what a customer can imagine. The price shield protects the domestic consumer enormously compared to the professional consumer, for whom the prices have sometimes been multiplied by ten.
How many people are affected out of your 220,000 subscribers? To what extent does the shield dampen the surge in the price of gas?
A few thousand people are affected by the sending of these letters. These users are now protected not by fixed prices but by the tariff shield, at a higher level than before. The increase is more than amortized, and if, in Bordeaux as elsewhere, the bill is sometimes higher, it is because there is a catch-up in prices before the tariff shield. When, in October 2021, the State decided to set up this shield, it must be remembered that the gas over the year before had increased by 80%, but those who were at a fixed price saw nothing. at that time.
Will the next customers whose fixed price contracts expire also have their bills increased?
Gradually, customers whose contracts expire at their fixed prices will be offered a new offer, with no problem displaying the price shield this time. Price variations will have nothing to do with what some customers thought they were going through.
We have heard of a possible extension from January of the tariff shield. And, at Gaz de Bordeaux as elsewhere, the shield will apply in its new form. We think we are a local actor, close to the territory and to customers and in this complicated period, this is all the more important.