2024-02-04 07:42:05
“It’s just the reality of the cost of using the network,” explains Emmanuelle Wargon, “there is the fact that the gas passes through pipes. These pipes must be maintained, they must be replaced when they are defaulters.”
Published on 04/02/2024 08:42
Reading time: 2 min Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the Energy Regulatory Commission, on the steps of the Elysée, in November 2022. (STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
As of July 1, the gas bill will increase again from 5.5% to 10.4% for the French, the Energy Regulatory Commission and the network manager GRDF announced on Friday February 2. An increase which may surprise as the benchmark gas price for January 2024 fell by 4% after months of successive increases. “It’s essentially linked to the fact that consumption is falling”explains Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the Energy Regulatory Commission, while the costs of transporting and using the gas network remain the same and must be borne by fewer consumers.
“It’s just the reality of the cost of using the network”explains Emmanuelle Wargon, because “in the price of the individual bill that we all pay, there is the price of the gas molecule itself, and then the fact that this gas passes through pipes. These pipes must be maintained, they must be replaced when they fail.”
An increase in prices that benefits the energy transition
This increase for the consumer, “this is essentially linked to the fact that consumption is falling”she explains. “It’s good news that consumption is falling, it’s good for the planet, it’s also good for purchasing power, because we consume less. But as we still need the pipes and we have the same requirement for quality and safety, if we distribute the expenses of using the network over less consumption, necessarily consumer by consumer, that’s a little bit more.”
The increase in prices, explains Emmanuelle Wargon, will however benefit the energy transition, by financing new biomethane infrastructure: “In the price that arrives for the next four years, we have planned all the necessary investments for biomethane. It is produced locally, often by farmers or sometimes on waste management installations and these installations must be well connected of methanization up to the gas network. That’s part of the price. The investments will be there to accommodate more biomethane and therefore gradually reduce the share of fossil gas in the gas we use.”
1707038320
#essentially #linked #fact #consumption #falling #explains #Emmanuelle #Wargon