The government’s electricity bill subsidies in 2022 will exceed a total value of 1.5 billion euros and, besides households and small businesses, also include medium and high-voltage consumers, according to sources.

Government officials, including energy minister Kostas Skrekas, the energy ministry’s secretary-general Alexandra Sdoukou, deputy finance minister Theodoros Skylakakis, RES market operator DAPEEP’s chief executive Giannis Giarentis and Regulatory Authority of Energy (RAE) chief executive Athanasios Dagoumas, have just held a meeting in search of measures offering protection to consumers against exorbitant energy prices, expected to remain elevated in the first few months of the year.

Final details on the new subsidy package for electricity bills are expected to be set within the coming days before it is announced during the first week of January by the energy and finance ministries.

The plan is expected to include a mechanism automatically calculating subsidies for retail electricity, over a one or two-month period, when wholesale electricity prices exceed a certain level.

Besides offering consumers some energy-crisis relief, the support package’s aim will be to help enterprises avoid increasing prices of products and services, which would prompt inflationary pressure, should energy prices not de-escalate in the coming months.