Europe 1 with AFP 10:25 p.m., January 18, 2023

This Wednesday, Patrick Pouyanné, director of TotalEnergies, said he was ready to "make a discount" on the electricity supply contracts concluded in 2022 at a high price with small and medium-sized enterprises.

The tariff for the group's SME customers will thus be aligned with that guaranteed to VSEs which was announced at the beginning of January.

The boss of TotalEnergies Patrick Pouyanné said he was ready on Wednesday to "make a discount" on the electricity supply contracts concluded in 2022 at a high price with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), estimating that 6,000 customers were concerned.

"We have a certain number of SMEs which are affected by prices that are too high, contracts signed between July and December, and we are going to offer them the possibility of renegotiating a contract" with a price of around 280 euros per megawatt hour, said declared Patrick Pouyanné in an interview with BFM Business broadcast on Wednesday evening.

“We are going to offer TotalEnergies customers to have a price equivalent to VSEs,” he said.

The tariff for the group's SME customers will thus be aligned with that guaranteed to VSEs which was announced at the beginning of January following negotiations between the government and the electricity suppliers.

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Price hikes deemed "prohibitive"

Faced with the explosion of energy bills for many craftsmen and small companies, the executive had urged energy suppliers to renegotiate contracts with price increases deemed "prohibitive".

Patrick Pouyanné assured that there had been "a real debate last year when electricity prices rose very, very high from July (...). Some electricity suppliers have decided to no longer award contracts because they thought the prices were too high. There was a debate with the government, which told us + No, no, you must continue to sign contracts +".

"We signed contracts which objectively, I see, are too high," he said.

The extension to SMEs of the capped tariff guaranteed to VSEs is "an effort on our part", added the CEO of TotalEnergies.

But "I think we have to make a correction and agree to make a discount on these contracts, including for SMEs, because the controversy will continue anyway," he said. he adds.