Energy regulator proposes 6.9% increase in regulated natural gas prices from October

The Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE) advanced this Thursday with a proposal to update regulated natural gas tariffs for the next gas year, which runs from October this year to September next, and which will result in an increase in 6.9% for low pressure customers with consumption of up to 10 thousand cubic meters per year, which includes families and part of the business sector.

“Compared to the average price of the previous gas year (2023-2024), consumers will register, from October (gas year 2024-2025), an increase of 6.9% in the final sales price which will translate into increases, between 87 cents and 1.66 euros, for the two most representative types of domestic customers”, explains ERSE in a statement.

The energy regulator indicates that “this increase in the regulated market is essentially justified by the increase in network access tariffs in the gas year 2024-2025, due to the decrease in demand for gas in the national market, which results in a unit increase in the costs of infrastructures”.

In its statement, ERSE also notes that the approximately 444 thousand consumers who remained, at the end of January 2024, with the supplier of last resort are subject to these variations.

The regulator recalls that the variation in the final price of consumers in the liberalized market, which at the end of January was around 1.1 million, depends not only on network access tariffs, but also on the energy component purchased by each supplier in the international markets.

The proposal now made by ERSE will be assessed by its tariff council, which will issue an opinion by April 30th. Afterwards, ERSE will draft the final version of the gas tariffs, to be approved by June 1st, to come into force on October 1st.