District the market with more affordable prices for companies and heavy for consumers called it “economic detention of capacity”. Yet the real news is not that the prices of the bills have been inflated by around 6 billion euros in a two -year period. We discovered it in the latest report by Arera, the state authority that regulates the energy market in Italy. The document has been said very much, suddenly and without the due premises. As admitted by Arera herself, the legitimate doubts about the investigation methodology are there, but there are as many on the prices that we have seen in the last two years in our bills: in its estimates on increased costs, the authority will not have split the cent, but has revealed that something has not worked and that, perhaps, it continues not to work. The problem is precisely that “perhaps”.

The estimates (criticized) of Arera on inflated bills

The numbers of Arera are the result of hypotheses based on hypothetical scenarios. The authority took into consideration the plants that generate electricity starting from three sources: gas, wind and sunny. He then collected all the offers presented in the daily auctions from which the price of the energy comes out, comparing them with an estimate of what should have been the “right” price expected for every technology, at a specific hour and on a given area.

The “suspects” mainly concern gas plants: the offers from these plants would have deliberately pushed the rods up to rise, inflating the final prices. Some examples. At certain hours of the day, according to Arera, between 2023 and 2024 these generation systems would have offered at least between 74 and 86 euros to megawattora more than the expected.

We pay 10 billion a year in the bill to throw energy: the paradox of renewables – by Cesare Treccarichi

The effects? All on Pun, the single national price, on which our bills depend. The practices of the companies would have caused increases on the Pun, on average, of 5-10 euros to megawattora in 2023 and 4-12 euros in 2024. And the gas plants are not the only ones. There are also photovoltaic and wind power plants, albeit lower from the point of view of prices. The phenomenon is similar, but the hours with anomalies grow, with a special mention for the wind farm, on which “economic detention conduct of capacity” are reported in a number of hours equal to 100 percent both in 2023 and in 2024, a percentage that for the solar drops to 61 percent in 2023 and 77 in 2024.

The account? According to the calculations of uisjournal.com Dossier, they make about more than 6 billion in a two -year period of extracosti for users, domestic and industrial. Or more than 6 billion of extraprofitti for companies in the sector. It depends on the points of view. But, it seems incredible, the real news of this relationship is not this.

The real problem of the Arera report on increased prices: no guilty and “blindness”

As admitted in the document of the authority, there is no more precise data: for this “the general and cognitive nature of the investigation, which has requested how the adoption of simplifying hypotheses has seen, does not however allow to automatically attribute to the aforementioned conduct an abusive connotation”, states the relationship.

It follows that it is impossible to sanction someone, also because the fines would be too low compared to the benefit obtained. And in addition, “the length and uncertainty of the administrative litigation” can reduce deterrence, as well as producing a late and partial refreshment of the damage suffered by buyers. Therefore, no guilty, but something to work on there is. And it would also be the time.

Inflated prices: the document that reveals the extraguadagni on the bills of light – by Cesare Treccarichi

Arera complains about the lack of availability of data and urged Terna to provide punctual. For this scarcity it was not possible to analyze the hydroelectric, for example. How is it possible that the state authority that should supervise the energy market is blind. Because this is the admission of Arera. The estimates have been made, the document was published, but with rough data and “simplificartic hypotheses” which however could still be revealing of a phenomenon. How does the authority supervise and regulate the market if you don’t see it? Was it had to get to 2025 to understand it? Thus the protection of Arera is on the contrary: certainly not for citizens.

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