The announcement was expected. It can reassure some French people: the increase in electricity and gas prices will be limited to 15% in 2023 for households, announced Elisabeth Borne this Wednesday, September 14 thanks to the extension of the tariff shield mechanism. The government thus announced that it would limit “price increases to 15% for gas in January 2023 and 15% for electricity in February 2023” for “all households, condominiums, social housing, small companies and the smallest municipalities”, detailed the Prime Minister during a press conference. Without this mechanism, the increase would have been 120%.
Concretely, the increase in the average bill for households heating with gas will be 25 euros per month, instead of around 200 euros without this tariff shield. The increase in the average bill for households heating this time with electricity will be 20 euros per month, instead of 180 euros per month without the tariff shield. The saving will therefore be a total of around 160 euros per month for households heating with electricity and 175 euros for households heating with gas, said Elisabeth Borne.
This 15% rise in energy prices “is not insignificant”, declared the head of government. To cope, “exceptional energy checks” will be paid “for the most modest”, “by the end of the year”. Their amount will be 100 to 200 euros depending on the household. Some 12 million households are affected.
In addition, the Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire announced that the tariff shield will cost 16 billion euros in 2023, 11 million for gas and 5 million for electricity.
