“The constant postponements of the end of the regulated electricity and gas tariffs confuse the end user and they lose confidence in the market. The same survey commissioned by Facile.it to mUp Research and Norstat tells us that as many as 7 million Italians do not know whether bills on the free market or protection“. He tells time.news / Labitalia Massimo Bello, president of Aiget, Italian association of energy wholesalers and traders.
“We need to work on the competition, in fact – he argues – a more dynamic market brings innovation. We are talking about a sector that will experience a lot of innovation in the coming years, such as electric cars, distribution charging stations, home automation. , all the attention on energy efficiency and sustainability. Technology is changing and the entire sector will suffer in terms of innovation“.
“Thinking – he warns – that in such a changing situation no value is also given to competition is limiting, because it would mean that only public companies can innovate and it is absurd. Indeed, it should be understood that competition, as well as innovation technology and the introduction of new services, is a fundamental step if you want to modernize everything. Like Aiget, we promote competition in the energy markets and we can also say equal opportunities because the risk is that only state-owned companies can truly participate in the innovation and modernization of the sector“.
“Instead – he admits – we do not want to open the market, continuous postponements are a wrong tool with respect to the goal we want to pursue. We are now at the fourth or fifth postponement but the question is: what is the goal to be pursued? evidence that on the free market the customer can find lower prices if he wants to than the greater protection and when he finds higher prices it is because the proposed service is different: for example fixed prices instead of variable as in protection, green energy, additional services “.
“In addition – he continues – the auctions for the award of protected customers would certainly bring out even more competitive prices. So, if you want to prevent the end customer from paying more, you should just organize things well, not postpone”.
President Aiget then gives an example: “Let’s think of the case of changes to the technological standards of televisions. Already in 2012 there was a first important change with the switch to digital, which forced millions of Italians to change TV. Now, between 2021 and 2022, there will be at least 10 million Italians affected by a further change of equipment. It is clear that changing TV is a thing that costs a lot but nobody talks about it and there is no strong opposition to this event. This is because it is considered a choice in favor of innovation “.
“In energy – he warns – competition is hindered even if end users will not have to pay anything to exit the protected market. One thing has not been understood: encouraging competition means innovating. Let’s think of many sectors in which competition and presence of new operators in the market has brought innovation: travel, banking, insurance, entertainment, payments, etc. “.
“In energy – points out the president Aiget – it is mistakenly believed that only traditional operators can innovate. An example is also the first draft of the Recovery fund (more correctly Next Generation Eu), which was a collection of projects of public energy companies or semi-public “.
For Massimo Bello, “we should, instead, create the conditions for the creation of an ecosystem of new or existing companies, which can develop and conceive new services“.” Greater competition would favor this system because it would allow the growth of many companies until reaching a size such as to allow innovation. Conversely, the only result obtained by postponing the end of regulated tariffs is to preserve current market shares, not the interest of end customers “, he concludes.