Once the tariff shield is finished at the end of 2022, “we will keep devices to cushion energy prices”, while prices have exploded on the wholesale markets, “and we will take specific measures to support the most fragile”, indicated the Prime Minister in an interview with Parisian / Today in France.
“The French can be reassured, we will cushion the increases,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Bruno Le Maire had specified that there would be no “catch-up” on the prices currently capped in 2023, and that the increases would also be contained for gas.
The regulated gas tariff was raised last autumn but has since been frozen, while that of electricity increased by 4% in February.
On the wholesale market, prices have exploded. Those of electricity for 2023 broke a record for France on Friday, reaching more than 1,000 euros per megawatt / hour (MWh), against around 85 euros per MWh a year ago. Gas prices were moving this week to historic levels, more seen since the start of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, more than 300 euros per MWh.
Next year, “for the most modest households, there will be energy checks which will help those who are most in difficulty to pay their energy bills”, detailed the Minister of the Economy during a meeting. a trip to Metz for a meeting of majority executives.
Such checks, for an amount between 48 and 277 euros, have already been granted to low-income households in 2022 to help them pay the energy bills of their homes.
For companies, the Minister of the Economy has indicated that he wants to simplify access to subsidies for those who do not benefit from a regulated or preferential tariff for electricity and are struggling to pay their energy bills.
Also present in Metz, the Minister for Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher asked companies in the tertiary sector to save energy so that electro-intensive industries can continue to operate normally.
Tertiary companies must “be aware that industrial companies today are facing massive increases in gas and electricity prices and that, through their savings, they can enable these companies to continue to work,” said the minister.
“We can act on the temperature of offices, we can act on the ventilation of shopping centers”, she cited as an example.
