An electricity bill multiplied… by ten!
Bakers in the Yvelines, Nathalie and Jean-Marc almost choked when they received their new schedule from EDF at the end of October.
"I took a blow to the head," said the forty-year-old Parisian at the end of December.
Like them, thousands of companies have received their new electricity bills in recent weeks.
But unlike individuals, the price of electricity for professionals is in the sole hands of energy companies, and is therefore most often on the rise.
A few years ago, however, companies could have taken advantage of the regulated electricity tariff (TRV).
This price per kWh is determined by the State, more or less detached from the market price, and therefore very protective, even more so when prices rise.
On January 1, 2021, this regulated tariff was however abolished in favor of the opening of the energy market to competition for companies employing fewer than ten people with revenues not exceeding two million euros.
The regulated tariff abolished for most companies, they have been forced to subscribe to market offers from electricity suppliers (on whom the government is now putting pressure).
The prices of these contracts are set freely by the energy company and therefore more closely linked to energy prices, which themselves fluctuate according to supply and demand.
The formula is similar to a mobile or Internet plan, the price of which varies according to the operator, the customer, the needs of the latter and whether or not there are commercial offers.
Contracts that become cannonballs
According to these contracts, there may be a commitment period, a fixed price, a temporary or permanent discount and terms of increase.
A bad contract can thus become a burden for its holder.
This is why bakers will be able to terminate their offer free of charge in the event of a “prohibitive” price increase and insofar as it “threatens the survival of the company”, announced Tuesday the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Mayor, however evoking an "exceptional measure", only for bakers, applied "on a case-by-case basis".
If individuals see their electricity bill increase to a lesser extent, it is because they can still benefit from the regulated tariff.
And that the tariff shield, voted by the government, limiting to 15% the increase in tariffs for the year 2023, acts only on this one.
Individuals who would not have traded their possible market offer for a regulated offer can also end up with bills that explode (unless it is indexed to the TRV).
EDF, which is the only one to have to offer a regulated offer, had also recorded an influx of new customers when the first “alternative” suppliers had increased their prices, encouraging their customers to leave them.
As for gas, the regulated tariff is already a distant memory for businesses.
These had to subscribe to market offers from the end of 2020.
For individuals, it is no longer possible to subscribe to contracts at the regulated rate since November 2019. For those who have not changed their offer since, it is still possible to take advantage of it... until next July 1 .
On this date, these contracts will automatically switch to market offers.
And individuals will then all be subject to market offers.
