These are bittersweet gifts for 15,000 RIVP tenants (Property management of the city of Paris). This social landlord, controlled by the city of Paris and with more than 63,000 housing units, faced the defection of its gas supplier at the end of last year when energy prices were exploding. “In the fall of 2020, we signed a gas supply contract with the company E-Pango, which undertook to deliver gas to us at a fixed price, rewinds David Belliard, president of the Régie. This company, which does not produce gas but is a simple intermediary, had state approval and complied with public procurement rules. »
Except that, according to the elected EELV, E-Pango did not cover its positions when the price of gas was cheap, basically it did not insure itself in the event of a sharp rise. A risk that could have been profitable but which turned against the operator when energy prices jumped. “They came to see us saying that they could no longer supply the gas at the fixed price and that they wanted to apply an increase backed by the market price”, says David Belliard.
Obviously the service provider has another version of the story: “The company had contacted the RIVP on October 5 in order to find a solution. The RIVP refused all our proposals, including those aimed at studying the reduction of their energy consumption as we do with some of our customers, including several public housing offices. Faced with the refusals of the RIVP, E-Pango finally unilaterally terminated the contract on December 28.
“We won’t stop there”
Christmas being already here and with it the winter wind, the RIVP had to find another operator in a hurry, who offered market prices. As a result, the monthly bill has increased by an average of 40 euros for the 15,000 tenants dependent on collective gas heating. To prevent them from paying the piper for the default of a supplier, the RIVP has decided to contribute to the FSL energy (Solidarity Fund for Housing), in order to “support the most fragile tenants”, according to David Belliard .
But the elected ecologist intends to hold E-Pango to account. “We are waiting for the end of the contract in the fall of 2022 before taking all the necessary actions to obtain compensation. We will not stop there, ”he warns. Moreover, he does not have words harsh enough to denounce a “rogue supplier, made possible by the liberalization of the energy market”, especially since according to him, “E-Pango is not in difficulty, it broke the contract to preserve its margins. »
“Our decision is not dictated by “profit” motivations but by the salvation of our company which supports more than 500 professional customers”, defends the supplier. He adds that “alternative solutions have been found with our customers who have taken the measure of current issues. Only the RIVP has an intransigent and now threatening position towards our society. »
David Belliard will also send two letters to Barbara Pompili, Minister for Ecological Transition and Emmanuelle Wargon, Minister for Housing, to “ask for increased aid for the most vulnerable and better regulation of the energy market”.
Communist elected officials demand “coherence” from the majority
The breach of contract by E-Pango, Jean-Noël Aqua, of the Communist and Citizen group, “finds it scandalous”. “It is a purely capitalistic calculation, but energy is not a good like any other”, develops the elected representative of the 13th arrondissement. And it is in the name of this logic that he opposes the project of SEM (mixed economy company) Ax Seine Energie which will be presented to the Council of Paris, from February 8. To sum up, this SEM, whose shareholders will be Paris, Le Havre, Rouen, the metropolis of Greater Paris, but also private or semi-public actors, has two objectives summed up Emmanuel Grégoire: “take stakes in private operators to promote the sustainable energy on the Seine axis and accelerate the energy transition of Paris”. If Jean-Noël Aqua is not opposed to the objectives, he refuses “the logic of competition” that the initiative underlies and calls for the production and distribution of energy to be carried out within a 100 % public in order precisely to avoid mishaps like the one the RIVP has just suffered. He therefore asks for “coherence” from the town hall, which cannot both complain about a liberalized market and at the same time participate in it via this new SEM.