9,300 EDP Comercial customers ask to move to regulated gas market

More than nine thousand EDP Comercial customers have applied to return to the regulated gas market, an EDP official told Lusa on Monday.

According to the same source, “9,300 commercial EDP customers have been asked to migrate to CUR. [Comercializador de Último Recurso]”, adding that this is the total number of customers who completed the change form available on your site.

Starting September 7, consumers wishing to return to the regulated gas market can now do so in-store “without any encumbrances or fees.”

Under the terms of the award, the Suppliers of Last Resort (CUR) will have a maximum of 45 days to allow consumers to make this change “online”.

According to the text of the decree-law, this is an “exceptional and temporary regime”, allowing “end users with an annual consumption of less than or equal to 10 thousand m3 [metros cúbicos] return to the regulated tariff regime, harmonizing this regime with the existing one in the electric power industry”.

The aim is to “prevent the end price of natural gas from rising in an environment that burdens families and small businesses”, in a context in which “the current situation of restricting natural gas supplies, motivated by the armed conflict in Ukraine, has caused a progressive increase in wholesale prices for natural gas” and which does not foresee “that this situation can be reversed in the short term”, having already announced “a sharp increase” in the liberalized market for next October.

Non-compliance by guaranteeing suppliers with the provisions of the Decree-Law constitutes a “light offence”, returning the proceeds from the application of the corresponding fines of 60% to the state and 40% to ERSE.

According to the executive branch, the measure that allows the transition to a regulated market has many potential beneficiaries of 1.3 million people.