A Deloitte study for the Portuguese Association of Energy has concluded that prices for electricity in the liberalised market are 3% lower than the in the regulated market with consumers having saved around €40 million in 2013.
In its analysis Deloitte concludes that ‘in 2013 the average price per megawatt hour in the free market was €6.9 lower than in the regulated market, which translates into a savings of approximately € 40 million to consumers in the domestic segment.’
According to the consultant, last year the cost of electricity including taxes and fees in the regulated market amounted to €241.7 per MWh, higher than the €234.8 per MWh estimated for the liberalised market.
The Association’s president, Jorge Cruz Morais, said at the presentation of the study in Lisbon that, "those who moved to the free market were certainly better off than those in the regulated market."
Deloitte's work also highlights the trend of rising electricity bills in recent years, noting that ‘the average price with taxes in the domestic segment grew by 14.5% between 2011 and 2013,’ and that this increase was related largely to the increase in VAT from 6% to 23%.
Morais said that "a good part of the costs we pay are not controlled by the supplier," adding that this helped to explain the poor ability of electricity suppliers to launch aggressive discount strategies to drum up new customers.
The president of the Association considers that the process of liberalisation in the Portuguese electricity market "has been a success."
For a list of deregulated suppliers, see:
http://www.deco.proteste.pt/casa/eletricidade-gas/simule-e-poupe/eletricidade-gas-melhor-tarifa
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