Despite the measures to curb the sharp increase in energy prices, such as fuel subsidies or the reduction of VAT on electricity bills, supplies continue to become more expensive. The last of them is natural gas, which according to a resolution published in the Official State Gazette (BOE), rises from this Friday an average of 7.45% for customers with a regulated rate (TUR).
Thus, the annual bill for consumers with the TUR 1 tariff -who annually consume less than 5,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), necessary for cooking and heating water, for example-, will increase by 6.41%. For their part, those who have contracted the TUR 2 rate -with annual consumption between 5,000 and 15,000 kWh, aimed at households that also use gas for heating- will pay 7.76% more, and customers of the new TUR rate 3 -that consume between 15,000 and 50,000 kWh will spend 8.44% more.
With this new rise compared to the last review at the beginning of April, gas has chained five quarters on the rise. Despite this, since October, the increase in the price of gas has been limited to 15% in order to cushion the impact of the rise in prices in the retail gas and electricity markets.
Among these measures, it was also established that in the quarterly reviews of the TUR the increase in the cost of raw materials (CMP) could not exceed 35% in gas. Likewise, it was agreed that the deficit owed to the Retailers of Last Resort (CUR) would be recovered in successive reviews.
The Government maintains that since the measure began to be applied, the impact on consumers has been considerably lessened. In this sense, sources from the Ministry of Energy Transition point out that the annual rate for users with TUR 1 has been lowered by around 73 euros, by 222 euros for those with TUR 2 and by 572 euros for those with TUR 3.
The Tariff of Last Resort for natural gas is updated by the Government on a quarterly basis if the price of the raw material varies by more than 2%. Of the 7.7 million natural gas consumers, 6 million have contracts with free-price market suppliers, while 1.7 million are covered by the TUR price. Any consumer connected to low-pressure natural gas networks whose annual consumption is less than 50,000 kilowatt hours (KWh) can benefit from this rate.
Although the bill for natural gas in the regulated market is on the rise, consumers in the free market tend to pay higher amounts, according to the analysis of the offers collected by the price comparator of the National Market and Competition Commission (CNMC), which can be consulted here.
