After last week's postponement, the Bollette decree is still postponed, which should have landed on the table of the Council of Ministers on Thursday 5 November. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the new text should go to the next meeting at Palazzo Chigi, scheduled for next Monday, but the conditional is a must.
Because the further reflection around the provision, which introduces a ceiling on the price of gas used by thermoelectric generation on the model of the Spanish Tope, will have to serve to overcome even the last obstacles and to ensure, as requested yesterday by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, during the meeting at Palazzo Chigi, a further discussion with Brussels, which has the final say on the provision, to guarantee perfect alignment.
Pichetto Fratin decided to bring the legislative decree to the next Council of Ministers
The Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, who yesterday gave an accurate report on the legislative decree, is determined to bring the text illustrated yesterday to the next Council of Ministers. The provision recognizes, against the ceiling, a reimbursement of the cost of the gas used for thermoelectric production and equal to the differential between the price of methane at the TTF (where yesterday it was around 90 euros per megawatt hour) and the threshold value of 58.9 euros per MWh negotiated with the European Commission. Part of the cost is borne by customers who have variable price contracts. The rest remains the responsibility of the producers, who will receive partial compensation. This reimbursement, according to the formulation developed by the ministry technicians who worked to identify a difficult solution, will be recognized both to thermoelectric producers and to self-consumers of electricity who use natural gas and derivative gases. The task of establishing the actual entity is delegated to Arera according to pre-established criteria, in line with EU legislation also to avoid reversals of cross-border flows. However, the decree specifies that this reimbursement cannot exceed 15 euros per MWh. This system is not considered satisfactory by the producers.
Prime Minister Meloni asked for an opinion from Arera
Yesterday the prime minister asked that Arera be consulted before launching the decree and that it be ensured to avoid deviations from the path indicated by Brussels. The Commission, in giving its green light to the new solution proposed by Italy, reiterated that the cost of coverage must be borne only by the consumer-beneficiaries of the same, i.e. those who are exposed to the spot price of electricity, thus excluding users who have contracted energy at a fixed price before the measure itself came into force.
Narrow track
A very narrow path which, if circumvented - the fear highlighted yesterday during the meeting at Palazzo Chigi - risks causing a new stop to the legislative decree. On which yesterday there were also doubts from the General Accounting Office of the State regarding another rule, the one which provides for the sale of gas stored by GSE and Snam during the crisis following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to control the costs of the companies most exposed to high energy costs. Snam sold that gas and paid the proceeds to the Csea (Energy and Environmental Services Fund) by 30 September. The new article 9 of the Legislative Decree establishes that Arera will have to use these funds to lower tariffs in 2027: as it is written, however, according to Treasury technicians, the rule would determine an income for the State in 2026 and an uncovered exit in 2027 with a misalignment of public finance, which could impact on the path to return from the excessive deficit procedure which the government plans to close in 2027. According to the Accounting Office, the rule must guarantee that the use of the resources paid to CSEA occurs in the same financial year as their acquisition. A clear request that the technicians will now have to ground within the provision to eliminate any risk.
