Will private households soon have to bleed for companies when it comes to electricity prices? No, the Economic Department (EAER) of SVP Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin (62) contradicts an article in the “Tages-Anzeiger”.
The Minister of Economic Affairs wants to help companies that suffer from the high electricity prices on the free market. However, the department insists that this should not happen on the backs of households.
“Once Free, Always Free”
A working group with representatives from five departments and twelve federal offices is examining how companies can return to basic services. Companies that have an annual consumption of more than 100,000 kilowatt hours and can therefore freely choose their electricity supplier, have benefited from rock-bottom prices for years. But now that they have to pay record prices, they want to go back to basic services. But today the law forbids that. The principle applies: «Once free, always free».
Parmelin is poised to change that – after all, business and jobs depend on it. However, the return of companies from the free electricity market to the basic supply has a catch: if large consumers are simply allowed to switch back to the local electricity company (EW), the EW would have to meet the extra electricity demand on the free market.
At least three variants
In principle, the electricity companies should pass on these extra costs to their other customers – to households and small businesses, which today are trapped in the basic supply and have never benefited from cheap prices.
This is exactly what Parmelin wants to avoid: According to the department, there is awareness that a return of companies to basic service could have a cost shift to existing customers if this was not made impossible with appropriate regulations. “The working group has therefore developed variants that exclude such a shift in costs.” According to information from Blick, at least three variants have been developed.
introduce waiting time
In this regard, the Association of Swiss Electricity Companies (VSE), headed by director Michael Frank, points out that the electricity tariffs for the basic supply must be fixed by 31 August and valid for one year. If an additional purchase had to be made for the new large customers now, the additional costs could only be calculated in the following years. For small power plants, it can become critical if they have to bear the extra costs themselves.
For this reason, the VSE requires that market customers are only allowed to return to the basic service at least one year in advance, preferably two years. Energy politicians, on the other hand, say that politicians should help the EW with guarantees or payments to cover the additional costs.
discount premiums
Incidentally, the working group does not only discuss rules for returning to basic facilities. It is also exploring proposals to ease budgets and, according to the WBF, other ways to help the economy.
Environment and Energy Minister Simonetta Sommaruga (62) has suggested in interviews that private households should receive more discounts on health insurance premiums. Apparently this is an instrument that is seriously under discussion.
Observers expect responsible federal councilor Parmelin to bring at least three options for a return to basic services to the government next week. They should have little or no cost implications for private households – and possibly for the electricity companies as well.