A technical change in the configuration of the gas bill threatens to cause more than half a million billings to domestic customers as of 2020. This is warned by the main gas companies in the country after analyzing in recent weeks the proposed change of tolls made by the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), whose allegations phase concluded a few weeks ago and is waiting to be analyzed by the Plenary.
The review promoted by the regulator replaces the pressure variables with the actual consumption to determine the amount that each consumer must contribute to the system to pay their fixed costs, including the maintenance of infrastructure such as gas pipelines or regasification plants. This change will contribute, according to the CNMC, to reduce this part of the invoice between 6% and 26% depending on the consumption of each client.
Companies do not agree with this figure and reduce the impact on the final price of the domestic invoice to «less than 1%». In addition, the sources of the sector consulted warn that the change has "small print" as it will cause hundreds of thousands of customers - 8% of the total that makes up the gas sector - have to be re-invoiced at the end of the year to adjust their consumption to the appropriate billing group within the 11 scales provided by the CNMC. For example, a change from the first to the second consumption group - which supposes exceeding the demand band of 3,000 kilowatt hours - could lead to a re-invoicing up or down of 36 euros at the end of the year.
The employer Sedigas denounces in her allegations sent to the body directed by José María Marín Quemada a "radical change" in the configuration of the receipt that will generate "high uncertainty" not only for companies, but also for domestic consumers. «Until now, only the toll was re-invoiced to high-pressure consumers at the end of the year, depending on the consumption really had to adjust them to the level of consumption. With the proposal, it seems that the distributor must re- invoice all consumers, including those with less pressure, which can lead to numerous claims ”, warns the organization in the text to which EL MUNDO has had access.
The CNMC proposes to use different consumption scales that will range from 3,000 kilowatt hours per year, typical of homes with unheated gas consumption, to more than 500 million kilowatt hours of a large industrial consumer. Gas companies say that by transferring customers cataloged by pressure to consumption with an estimate, there will be different errors that will then have to be corrected with a re-billing planned in the first half of the following year.
The public regulator has already analyzed some of the allegations proposed by Sedigas and has decided to make changes to the final toll order version that will take effect in January 2020. The new text will include an addendum that recognizes the existence of the billings and establishes the obligation to companies to inform their customers about this change, thus avoiding the confusion that would cause them to find themselves unexpectedly with an additional invoice at the end of the year. Regulator sources remove these changes iron by ensuring that they have already been made on other occasions in the electricity bill and defend the benefits of the toll reduction.
The companies consider that this appendix is not enough and they call on the CNMC to postpone the entry into force of the new methodology until October of the next fiscal year. In addition, companies ask for a consumption floor to avoid re-invoicing the bulk of domestic customers. Sedigas, which brings together the entire sector, demands three months for the sector to have an "adequate understanding of change" and another semester to ensure the implementation of all its computer systems. The companies also protest that this change is part of the battery of modifications that affect almost the entire operation of the energy sector in Spain, regulated in 14 different circulars by the CNMC. “Together, the circulars propose a matrix of interrelationships between them that makes it difficult to define the new regulatory horizon and its final impact on the client,” concludes Sedigas.
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