Will the government be able to keep its promise to limit the increase in French electricity bills to 4% in 2022 while energy prices continue to soar? A renunciation “would be very problematic for consumers”, warns the head of the studies department of the UFC-Que Choisir, Antoine Autier, Wednesday January 5 on franceinfo. “French consumers should [davantage] benefit from the competitiveness of the nuclear fleet “, that EDF sells abroad.
franceinfo: The government’s tariff shield may not contain the increase in the price of electricity to 4%, as promised by the Prime Minister. How far can it go to keep it acceptable?
Antoine Autier: Logic would dictate that the Prime Minister’s commitment be kept. The 4% that was announced already corresponds to a significant increase, we do not see why it would not be applied. Admittedly, there have been events that have taken place since, in particular the rise in electricity prices, but there are several mechanisms that can mobilize the public authorities to maintain an increase at 4%, in particular a spreading of the increase, that is to say that we will limit the increase to 4% in 2022 and in 2023 consumers will be able to pay a little more on their bills to compensate. Today, there is a purchasing power crisis for consumers and already to have an increase of 4%, it is important, then to have an increase of 8-10%, that would be really dramatic, all the more that at the same time, there is an increase in gas, an increase in oil, so we can clearly see that this would be very problematic for consumers.
But postponing the electricity bill to 2023 is equivalent to postponing the presidential election. Would we not blame the government for it?
It has already been done. In 2019, there was already a lag in the increase in the regulated sales tariff. In 2020 and even 2021, consumers continued to foot the bill for 2019.
“It is said that the government is doing what it can given the conditions on the market, but in reality, the problem today is that the theoretical increase in the regulated sales tariff is the result of a failure to regulate the market. . “
Antoine Autierto franceinfo
There is a problem of nuclear regulation, in particular, which benefits relatively little to alternative suppliers and ultimately which allows EDF to sell part of this electricity on the market, while French consumers should benefit from the competitiveness of the fleet. nuclear. There is also a problem of formula in the calculation of regulated tariffs for the sale of electricity, which takes into account in particular the prices on the international markets at the end of the year. And it is precisely because at the end of the year, we had very high prices that we will have a regulated price which will increase. It was enough simply to change the formula of the regulated sales tariff for the increase to be much smaller than what could happen soon.
Are you asking for national favoritism in the sale of electricity by EDF?
Favoritism is a bit big, but in any case, the fact is that French consumers do not fully benefit from French nuclear production or from competitiveness.
These are political choices that the public authorities must make: do we favor the interests of EDF or the interests of consumers? For the moment, given the arbitration, it is rather in EDF’s interest.
Antoine Autierto franceinfo
But we hope that it is the interests of consumers that will prevail, especially since they are the ones who financed the nuclear fleet. It’s a fundamental part of the equation.
The government plans to ask EDF to sell more electricity at reduced prices to other French suppliers, but the company does not agree. Is this a solution, in your eyes?
Absoutely. It’s a request that the UFC Que Choisir has been making for three years now. The government never acted on our requests or our letters. This solution seems to hold the line, after all. We can say so much better, but nevertheless despite everything, it arrives a little late.