On Monday, on RMF radio, the head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection was asked whether electricity consumers should be afraid of mid-2024, when the solutions intended to protect against electricity price increases will cease to apply, and replied that “it will certainly not be the case that these prices will soar.” .
She emphasized that current solutions allow the average user to save PLN 500 on electricity for half a year.
Who will receive aid in the second half of 2024?
At the same time, she informed that the Ministry of Climate and Environment was “making preparations” for possible solutions that would be in force for the second half of the year. “We will watch how prices will develop on the market, also for the economy (…) We will want to protect primarily those farms for which this type of challenge is a big challenge (…) We will want the poorer sphere of society or multi-family households provide help,” she said.
Hennig-Kloska announced that the first solutions in this matter will be presented in the next quarter.
At the end of 2023, an act was passed which maintains the current rules for protecting specific electricity, gas and heat consumers in the first half of 2024. These regulations provide, among others, for: maximum electricity prices for households and small and medium-sized companies.
What rules apply in the first half of 2024?
From January 1 to June 30, 2024, the mechanisms for protecting households and the above-mentioned so-called consumers sensitive to energy price increases.
The current maximum electricity price of PLN 412 per MWh net is maintained up to a specified consumption limit. The limits are 1.5 MWh for all households, 1.8 MWh for households with people with disabilities, 2 MWh for families with the Large Family Card and for farmers. They are half as much as in the whole of 2023, because the act is to be in force for half a year.
After exceeding the consumption limit, these consumers will pay the maximum price of PLN 693 per MWh. Local governments and public utility entities are to pay the same maximum price. PLN 693 per MWh will also be the maximum price for small and medium-sized enterprises and farmers.
What next with the maximum gas price?
The maximum gas price will be maintained at PLN 200.17 per MWh until mid-2024, and solutions limiting heat prices for specific recipients will also be introduced. In addition to households, these include housing communities and cooperatives, entities obliged to supply energy for housing needs and public utility entities. Heat consumers are protected, regardless of whether their heat supplier’s tariffs are subject to approval by the President of the Energy Regulatory Office or not.
Additionally, in the first half of 2024, protection will cover municipal companies operating sports facilities, such as sports halls or swimming pools. The source of financing was indicated as the COVID-19 Fund, which will be financed from the gas write-off that goes to the Price Difference Payment Fund for 2022 and other funds. The Act introduces the need to transfer the gas write-off to the Fund retroactively for 2022.
