“We have continuity measures, it’s not a cleaver”, reassures Emmanuelle Wargon

The end of the tariff shield for gas “is not a cleaver”, assures Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE), Saturday April 22 on franceinfo, while the French government has decided to extend until the beginning of 2025 the tariff shield on electricity set up in France. October 2021 to limit increases in household bills. It was originally only scheduled until the end of 2023. “It’s going to be fine because we have continuity measures,” assures the former Minister of Housing.

>> Energy prices: why is the government going to extend the tariff shield on electricity but not on gas?

“For electricity, we still have high prices and we still have high price forecasts for 2024”, justified Emmanuelle Wargon. On the other hand, the tariff shield on gas is not extended. “Gas will be well hedged until the end of the year, but it will just be a theoretical application because prices have come down a lot”indicated the president of the CRE. “We find the prices before the implementation of the shield before October 2021”she clarified.

Gas prices will stay low next year

Since the peaks of the year 2022 caused by the war in Ukraine, “we return to normal levels”she said. “Right now, we don’t even need the tariff shield because the prices are low, they’re low for the end of the year, they’re low for next year”, she says. On Friday, the reference price of natural gas in Europe was around 40 euros per MWh, i.e. the level of the summer of 2021, which was certainly already around double the average prices of previous years.

For consumers, Emmanuelle Wargon recommends “subscribe to a fixed price offer”. “Now that the gas is again at a fair price, the suppliers are offering or will offer fixed price offers”she assured. “There, you sign for one year, two years, three years, you no longer have any risk since you know how much you will pay”.