RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, has delivered an official decision vindicating the industrial sector, after a four year wait, in a dispute concerning temporary natural gas distribution surcharges imposed on consumers by ordering offsetting measures leading to rebates for the period in question, between August 14, 2015 to December 1, 2016.

EVIKEN, the Association of Industrial Energy Consumers, challenged the introduction of this temporary gas distribution surcharge for industrial gas consumers, deemed as a breach of EU rules. It burdened industrial gas consumers at a rate of 4 euros per MWh.

Industrial consumers will receive rebates, based on a specific formula, covering the aforementioned period, according to the RAE decision, published in the government gazette yesterday.

According to industrial sector estimates, the surcharge sum to be returned to industrial consumers is estimated between 2.5 million and thee million euros. The rebate may be distributed in installments over a period of up to five years.

This surcharge did not reflect the costs of operators, arrived as a disproportionate cost for certain consumer categories using the network, and should have been determined and introduced by RAE, not through a legislative procedure, EVIKEN argued in its case before being vindicated by RAE as well as the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy.

Discrepancies observed exceeded 100 percent for most energy-intensive industrial enterprises.

The industrial sector will not tolerate any breach of EU rules concerning the new market’s framework, Antonis Kontoleon, the head official at EVIKEN, stressed.

Brussels’ Directorate-General for Energy had supported EVIKEN on all aspects of the dispute through a surveillance report delivered in November, essentially preannouncing the RAE decision.