A decision on whether monthly electricity subsidies, one of the just-reelected government’s energy crisis measures introduced nearly a year ago, will  continue to be offered in July, stands as a top-priority issue for the new energy ministry, once the new government is sworn in.

Theodoros Skylakakis, the ruling center-right New Democracy party’s Alternate Minister of Finance, is being tipped to assume the energy ministry’s top post, in place of Kostas Skrekas, following the ND party’s resounding majority-securing victory in yesterday’s second round of the country’s general election.

The new energy ministry will need to decide on whether to offer consumers state electricity subsidies for July before the end of June.

During his short tenure, the caretaker government’s energy minister Pantelis Kapros succeeded in maintaining the right for a price cap in the wholesale electricity market, through its incorporation into relevant EU regulations. This extension will apply until July, 2024.

The new energy minister, however, will need to take the issue a step further and determine whether a wholesale cap would be useful beyond the end of September, when the current cap expires, in the event of any new spike in prices.

The minister must take into account that excess revenues recovered through the price cap are minimal and provided mostly by the RES sector as long as the crisis remains in decline.

An alternative formula will also need to be considered by the ministry as the current cap is prompting a series of side effects.