Electricity bill and increase, savings with the free market?

Electricity bill and increase, with increases and sting of + 40% on the way, could the free market save the consumer? Yes, at least according to the simulation of Facile.it in an analysis on the costs of the 2020 and 2021 bills. And in total it would be a saving of 16% on electricity and 13% on gas. Last year, thanks to the reduction in the cost of raw materials, tariffs fell but, on the other hand, the many hours spent at home increased consumption, especially for electricity. The balance, according to the analysis of Facile.it, is in chiaroscuro; the electricity bill, last year, reached € 505.40, that is 7.5% more than in 2019. It went better, however, on the gas front; consumption, despite the lockdowns, remained substantially stable and Italians were thus able to fully benefit from the fall in tariffs by spending, on average, € 734.30. Overall, therefore, between electricity and gas, in 2020 the Italians budgeted 1,239.71 euros per family (compared to 1,378.38 euros in 2019), but the fear is that for 2021 the figure will be much higher: tariffs increased considerably in the first part of the year, consumption, if one thinks of smart working for example, for many families remained high and prices could rise further in the coming months. “On October 1st, the energy tariffs will be updated and the risk of a maxi increase is real if we consider that for months now we have been witnessing a significant increase in the cost of the main energy raw materials”, explains Mario Rasimelli, Managing Director Utilities of Facile. it. “To protect yourself from the changes, which will automatically trigger for those who are still in the protected market, the advice is to evaluate the transition to the free market by taking advantage of the fixed price offers proposed by the operators”, he observes. With the rates currently in force, according to the simulations of Facile.it, for the same consumption, looking at the best rate on the free market, a family could save up to 16% for the electricity bill and up to 13% for the gas bill. If we look at the data on a regional basis, significant territorial differences emerge. Considering that the price of energy under the protection regime is the same in all areas of the country, the difference in the weight of the bill is linked solely to consumption; the more energy you use, the bigger the final bill will be. Looking at the national ranking, Sardinia is in first place; on the island, the average consumption per family recorded in 2020 was equal to 3,266 kWh which, under the protection regime, corresponds to a total cost of 584 euros, i.e. 15.6% more than the national average. Such high consumption – explains Facile.it – ​​can be explained by the absence of a gas supply on the island, a situation that is often compensated for with the use of electric devices, such as heaters and water heaters, which have a major impact on the bill. In second place is Veneto, where the average consumption recorded is equal to 3,027 kWh and the bill to 542 euros. The regions where electricity consumption is more contained, and therefore the lightest bills, are Valle d’Aosta, where in 2020 families spent, on average, 399 euros compared to a consumption of 2,231 kWh and Liguria (2,404 kWh and an annual cost of 430 euros). The price of gas under the protected regime, unlike that of energy, varies according to the areas of the country; the weight of the bill, therefore, is the result of both the consumption of each family and the tariffs provided by the area of ​​residence. From the analysis of the contracts it emerges that the citizens who paid the highest bill in 2020 are those of Trentino-Alto Adige; here an average family spent 935 euros a year. The residents of Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont follow equally (€ 931). Looking at the ranking in the opposite direction, however, we find Campania, a region where an average family spent ‘only’ 631 euros in 2020, Puglia, where the cost of the bill was equal to 641 euros and Lazio (678 EUR).