Greeks pay inflated electricity prices due to lack of competition

Greek electricity bills are inflated by 13 percent “due to the government’s disastrous policy of prohibiting competition in the domestic electricity market”, according to former energy minister and Pasok MP Yannis Maniatis.

Maniatis cites the fact that in the first half of 2016, 100KWh cost 17.2 euros, whereas in 2017 that rose to 19.4 euros.

“The absurdity of the government’s policy was heightened with the transitional measures of the NOME auctions. Instead of lowering prices for Greek consumers, it reduced prices in Bulgaria and Italy, where private providers exported energy which they had bought at low prices from Greece’s Public Power Corporation (DEH),” the MP said.

The NOME mechanism (Nouvelle Organisation du Marché de l’Electricité) involves agreements between electricity producers and distributors, with the objective of lowering prices.

Maniatis’ term as energy minister was considered exceptionally successful, as he was able to lay the groundwork and launch tenders for the exploration of Greek hydrocarbon deposits, a project that had been discussed for years but had never gotten off the ground.

“A similar situation emerged in the natural gas market. Greek prices fell by a paltry 0.7 percentage points, whereas the EU average was a 6.3 percentage point reduction in the same period, and neighbouring Bulgaria was able to slash prices by 10.3 percentage points,” Maniatis said.

“The above becomes all the more enraging when one considers that in this government’s term to date (2015-2017), the price of petrol dropped from 110 US dollars per barrel to 45 dollars. As a consequence, DEH’s annual expenditures on fuel to provide electricity to the islands fell by 400 million euros,” he noted.

Maniatis also underlined that the government saddles Greek consumers with a 100 million euros in charges annually for “Services of General Interest”, as there has been a two-year delay in completing the electricity connection with Cycladic islands.

“They [the government] are destroying the national economy and are committing crimes against poor households. Their theatric and lies are glaring by now. The sooner they leave the better,” the Pasok MP declared.

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