An inflation-busting January rise for EDP customers, all 2.5 million of them, is designed to prod them into shifting their contracts to one of the new wave of suppliers in the allegedly liberalised market.
The old EDP is forcing its most loyal customers to pay 3.3% more next January for the same brand of electricity they were buying in December. An average rise of 3.3% for domestic consumers represents an increase of €1.14 on the average monthly bill of €35.
Good news for those on low or close to zero incomes who qualify for the social tariff as their bills will be dropping by 14%, a decrease of €3.11 on their average monthly bill of €19.10.
The January 1st, 2015 increase will be followed by further quarterly increases over the year to make EDP electricity so expensive in comparison with other suppliers that people will finally shift over to one of the newly constructed suppliers.
The social tariff will stay the same throughout 2015 and the government says that it has extended the social tariff criteria and that now 500,000 consumers can benefit from cheap rates.
Before thanking the government for its largesse, this widening of the customer base receiving cheap electricity means simply that the electricity supplier puts the rate up for those customers whose incomes are over the social tariff baseline.
The Energy Services Regulatory Authority stated today that data from the liberalised market shows that in 2015 about 75% of the total domestic electricity consumed in Portugal will be subject to free market prices, with 25% subject to (social tariff) prices regulated by ERSE.
Portugal’s electricity is expensive when compared to net income levels in Europe and its progress in green energy development has not, nor will it result in lower prices to the consumer.
For a list of electricity suppliers in the liberalised market, look at
http://www.deco.proteste.pt/casa/eletricidade-gas/simule-e-poupe/eletricidade-gas-melhor-tarifa
