HEALTHPLAN MAGAZINE

On Wednesday, September 14, the European Commission released its plan to help reduce energy expenditure “in an intelligent way.”

The EU’s extraordinary measures to fight the worsening energy crisis, will focus on power savings and capturing excess revenues. There will be no price cap on gas imports entering the European Union for now.

Speaking on Wednesday, Kadri Simson, the European energy commissioner said that they “were continuing to assess the impact of a possible gas price cap on the EU's supply.”

Brussels has proposed a two-step plan in order to alleviate possible shortages this winter. One step will be voluntary, the other will be compulsory and will impact all consumers within the EU.

The Spanish government has so far insisted that gas and electricity restrictions will not be enforced on typical households in Spain. However, the first voluntary stage of the suggested plan indicates that nations should launch “information and communication campaigns” instructing people on how to minimise their energy usage.

The Commission proposed that “National measures could also include tax incentives or compensation for affected market participants if a tangible reduction in demand beyond normal expected consumption is achieved.”

The Spanish government are at this moment in time, however, working on a new contingency and energy-saving plan, that they hope will be sorted by the end of this month. It will include incentives for using renewable energy, as well as energy-saving suggestions such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

In the interim, the European Commission has set a compulsory electricity savings target of no less than 5 percent for the whole of the EU. The majority of this percentage will have to be conserved when demand is high and the cost is highest, during peak hours. Brussels believes that this will require choosing three or four hours every day, which will then result in 1,200 million cubic metres of electricity being saved in as little as four months.

Member States have already been asked to lower their gas consumption by 15 percent from August this year to March 2023, but Spain was awarded an exception and will only need to cut usage by 7 percent. In a move to achieve this, limits have been set on air-conditioning and heating temperatures and public building lights have been turned off at 10 pm.

With no sign of a price cap, Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the Union speech that the EU’s initial package of exceptional measures to help reduce electricity prices will contain three elements:

• A plan to introduce mandatory power savings during peak hours;
• A cap on the excess revenues made by power plants that do not use gas to produce electricity, such as renewables, nuclear, hydropower and lignite;
• A solidarity mechanism to partially capture the surplus profits made by fossil fuel companies (oil, gas and coal) during the 2022 fiscal year.

Energy ministers still need to make any needed adjustments on September 30, before the legislation can come into force. The new plan can be approved quite simply by a qualified majority in the Council and completely bypass the European Parliament.

The aim is to give instant relief to companies and consumers under financial strain.

Source

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/09/14/energy-crisis-brussels-unveils-measures-to-capture-energy-profits-but-delays-price-cap-on-
https://spanishnewstoday.com/brussels_unveils_energy_saving_plan_that_includes_mandatory_measures_for_spain_1837216-a.html