This guaranteed rate, applicable from the January 2023 invoice, will be accessible to VSEs which have renewed their electricity supply contract from the second half of 2022 and which do not benefit from the regulated sales rate, specified the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire.
Of the 2.1 million VSEs in France, 600,000 do not benefit from the regulated tariff like households, and which is even lower, according to figures given by the number two of the government.
At this stage, the extent of the commercial gesture granted by the suppliers or the effort of the State to compensate for this guaranteed price remains impossible to quantify.
"We are continuing discussions on cost sharing" with suppliers, assured Bruno Le Maire.
With this measure, the State therefore rules out the hypothesis of thousands of individual renegotiations of electricity contracts between companies and suppliers, which has been considered so far.
A baker in Brou, near Chartres, in Eure-et-Loir, on December 1, 2022 © JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP/Archives
The guaranteed tariff announced on Friday only concerns electricity supply contracts, those of gas being targeted by already existing aid mechanisms (regulated tariff, help desk, etc.).
Among the energy companies present at the meeting were notably EDF, Engie and TotalEnergies.
The latter had announced earlier in the day to be ready for "tariff revisions" and proposed to bring electricity supply contracts to VSEs "to an average annual price of 320 euros excluding tax per MWh, after taking into account" existing government aid.
© 2023 AFP