retail natural gas market

RAAEY initiatives aimed at informing, protecting consumers

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Two new initiatives taken by RAAEY, the Regulatory Authority for Waste, Energy and Water, its publication of a first retail electricity market report, to be updated monthly, and the launch of a new website section offering useful advice to consumers, aim to intensify competition between electricity suppliers, to the benefit of consumers, and also offer consumer protection, the authority’s energy-division deputy, Dimitris Fourlaris, has told energypress in an interview.

Publishing statistics on the electricity supply sector, through the retail report, is very useful in opening up the market and will also contribute to the provision of innovative products for consumers, the RAAEY official explained, adding that the authority also intends to begin publishing retail reports covering the natural gas market.

Consumers lodged roughly 13,500 complaints to suppliers last year, Fourlaris pointed out. The purpose of RAAEY’s new website section is to offer consumers useful tips and keep them informed so that complaints may be prevented before they arise, he added.

The public’s response to consumer-protection tools already developed by RAAEY has been high, while an improved price-comparison tool will soon be launched, the authority’s deputy informed.

IEA: Greece needs to hold back on central role of natural gas

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Elevated natural gas prices combined with Greece’s effort to end its dependence on Russian supply raise questions about the central role Athens is placing on gas as a transitional fuel, the International Energy Agency IEA has noted in a special report on Greece.

Greece’s current dependence on natural gas can be considered incompatible with the country’s climate policy, the reported notes, adding that investments in gas network expansion would be better directed towards energy efficiency, renewables and storage.

The government needs to reexamine and rationalize the role of natural gas in the energy sector and related policies to avoid projects that will come to nothing, the IEA report warned.

Until now, competition has remained limited in the Greek electricity and gas markets, with large players in dominant positions, the reported noted, adding that both the government and RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, must continue their efforts to ensure a high degree of liquidity, transparency and competition.

RAE, according to IEA, is severely understaffed and faces difficulties in offering appropriate remuneration to attract competent and experienced staff.

Necessary experience and capacity for performing tasks may be lacking at RAE, shortcomings which could jeopardize further market reforms, the IEA report noted, while also expressing concerns about a lack of independence at RAE restricting its ability to perform.

No major natural gas market share changes in 2022

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Smaller players gained some ground in the natural gas market in 2022, attracting a few thousand customers from more dominant rivals, but the overall picture essentially remained unchanged, gas distribution company data examined by energypress has shown.

Retail gas supplier Aerio Attikis (Fysiko Aerio) moved up to top spot in the business category, capturing a market share of 38.3 percent, followed by Zenith with 37.9 percent and Mytilineos with 4.8 percent, data showed.

As for the household category, Zenith remained the market leader with a 51.3 percent market share, but did end 2022 having lost some customers. Aerio Attikis (Fysiko Aerio) was ranked second with 25.7 percent and Mytilineos was third with 4.5 percent. Elpedison, ranked fourth, increase its market share to 4.4 percent in 2022 from 3.7 percent the previous year.

Heron, ranked fifth in the household category, also gained customers, up from 16,728 in 2021 to 22,151 in 2022, boosting its market share from 3 percent to 3.9 percent.

In another noteworthy development, power utility PPC made a dynamic entry into the retail gas market, amassing 21,821 household customers by the end of 2022 for a market share of 3.9 percent.

Zenith ended 2022 as the overall market leader for natural gas supply to the industrial, business and household sectors, combined, with a 34.4 percent market share. Aerio Attikis (Fysiko Aerio) followed with a market share of 30.4 percent, while Mytilineos was ranked third with a combined market share of 12.6 percent.

Mytilineos was ranked first for gas supply to industrial consumers in 2022, capturing a 30.8 percent market share, followed by Heron with 22.9 percent and Aerio Attikis (Fysiko Aerio) with 16.3 percent.

 

Understaffed authority unable to address consumer complaints

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A platform established five months ago by RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, to support and protect consumers by accepting their complaints and forwarding them to respective enterprises being criticized, has largely remained futile, restricted by the authority’s acute understaffing problem, despite a considerable inflow of complaints, some 1,400 in total so far.

The platform, myrae, launched last September, has been a letdown for consumers, facing difficulties amid the energy crisis.

Complaints submitted by troubled and frustrated consumers have raised a number of issues, including overcharging claims, lack of electricity-bill transparency by suppliers, as well as calls for intervention by the authority.

RAE’s workforce numbers about 100 persons, of which just 18 are specialized. A further 30 staff members are employed at the authority’s administrative department, while 50 have been hired on temporary contracts expiring at the end of 2022.

The shortage of staff at RAE is highlighted by a comparison to the workforce at Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission (EETT), which employs 226 persons, 110 of these specialized, despite overseeing a mature market.

 

Barriers, restrictions affecting power, gas market liberalization

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Greece’s retail electricity and gas markets are moving towards full liberalization, but, in the course, needing to overcome major barriers and restrictions, a European Commission report for 2020 has highlighted.

Despite the progress made, obstacles in four key areas continue to obstruct the entry of new players in the country’s electricity and gas markets, the report noted.

Disincentives of regulatory nature, market inequalities, entrepreneurial and procedural barriers, as well as customer inaction were identified as the four key areas that need to be dealt with if full liberalization of the electricity and gas markets is to be achieved, the report found.

On the regulatory front, proposals offered by the European Commission focus on the need for a consistent framework offering long-term stability and security for market players.

Market surveillance and monitoring by authorities needs to be effective and accurate to prevent unfair competition behavior by market players, it added.

On market entry, the report recommends actions that would enhance the procedure’s reliability and uniformity.

As for customer immobility, signifying a market still not fully mature, the European Commission report proposes the provision of improved information to customers before supply agreements are signed, greater transparency, better price-comparing ability, as well as mechanisms protecting consumers against unprincipled actions by suppliers.

RAE set to permit gas link fee discounts after initial hesitation

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Following initial hesitation, RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, appears set to permit distribution network connection fee discounts offered by natural gas distributors to attract new customer. But this approval will only apply to areas where gas market penetration levels remain low.

RAE has hesitated to approve such discounts offered by gas utility DEPA’s subsidiaries EDA Attiki, EDA Thess and DEDA – the three gas distributors covering the wider Athens area, Thessaloniki-Thessaly and rest of Greece, respectively – fearing the special offers could be regarded as a form of state aid by the European Commission’s competition officials.

However, DEPA Infrastructure, a new DEPA entity now controlling these three gas distribution subsidiaries, recently warned that RAE’s delays are undermining its privatization procedure. This warning was highlighted in a letter to the authority that was also shared with privatization fund TAIPED and the energy ministry.

RAE’s delay in endorsing EDA tariffs for 2019 to 2022 has consequently also placed the gas company’s development plan in turmoil, DEPA Infrastructure pointed out in the letter.

RAE has overcome its concerns and is now preparing to endorse the tariffs. The authority will also permit connection fee discounts in areas where natural gas market penetration levels do not exceed 25 percent.

In areas where natural gas market penetration levels are exceeded but not greater than 75 percent, RAE will permit connection fee discounts of up to 90 percent in 2022, 80 percent in 2023, 70 percent in 2024 and 60 percent in 2025.

The authority will not endorse any connection fee discounts for municipalities where natural gas market penetration levels exceed 75 percent.

 

Gas supplier switching up 164% in newly liberalized gas market

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A total of 20,134 gas company customers, 4.18 percent of 481,838 in total, switched suppliers in 2019, data provided by RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, has shown.

This mobility highlights the Greek retail gas market’s heightened level of competition less than three years since its liberalization and the determination of customers to secure the best possible deals.

In 2018, when the country’s retail gas market was liberalized, 7,611 customers of 441,330 in total, a far lower 1.72 percent, switched gas suppliers.

These figures represent a 164 percent rise, between 2018 and 2019, of customers switching gas suppliers.

Businesses registered the greatest level of mobility, followed by household customers and industrial customers, in that order, both in terms of gas amounts used and number of supply connections.

The supplier switching rate in the household category was 4.12 percent in 2019, up from 1.69 percent in 2018. In the business category, 5.72 percent of consumers switched suppliers in 2019, up from 2.41 percent in 2018.

On the contrary, supplier switching in the industrial customer category fell sharply to 3.17 percent in 2019 from 8.78 percent in 2018.

In numbers, 19,180 household consumers of 465,018 in total changed gas suppliers in 2019. In the business category, 944 of 16,505 made switches to new suppliers last year. As for the industrial category, 10 of 315 customers moved to new gas suppliers in 2019.

Despite the increased level of customer mobility, two suppliers, Zenith and Fysiko Aerio, remained dominant, capturing market shares of 65.51 and 25.76 percent, respectively, in terms of number of connections, according to the RAE data. The two frontrunners were followed by Mytilineos (2.85%), Elpedison (2.05%) and NRG (1.16%).

These market shares and rankings differ when based on gas volume. Under these terms, Zenith’s share was 35.95 percent in 2019, while Fysiko Aerio captured a 31.13 percent share. They were followed by PPC (5.96%), Mytilineos (5.44%), Heron (5.25%), Elpedison (5.21%) and DEPA (3.51%), among a field of smaller players.

 

 

Copelouzos, DEPA secure PPC gas supply deals for 4.5m MWh in 2020

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The Copelouzos Group and gas utility DEPA have emerged as the winning bidders of a power utility PPC tender for gas supply to the latter in 2020 totaling 4.5 million MWh. The terms include an option for supply in 2021.

Besides the Copelouzos Group and DEPA, a third participant, Mytilineos, took part in the tender.

The Copelouzos Group has successfully bid to supply 2.5 million MWh of gas to PPC, while DEPA has taken on the other 2 million MWh needed by the power utility, energypress sources informed.

PPC is one of Greece’s biggest natural gas consumers. Its needs are expected to grow further as a result of the power company’s upcoming entry into Greece’s natural gas retail market, a move carrying ambitious targets. PPC also plans to enter the wholesale gas market.

PPC failed to secure capacity slots for 2020 at the Revythoussa LNG terminal, just off Athens, through a competitive procedure from November to earlier this month.

Success here would have enabled PPC to import LNG shipments in 2020, as the power utility had done in the previous year.

PPC now intends to bid for an LNG capacity at the prospective Alexandroupoli FSRU in northeastern Greece during a binding second-round market test expected following the festive season.

PPC gearing up for gas market entry, seeking alternative supply sources

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The main power utility PPC is intensifying its efforts for a natural gas market entry as an alternative business activity in the wider energy sector to compensate for anticipated losses to result from its disinvestment of lignite units and electricity market share contraction, both required by the bailout agreement.

“The natural gas market is changing rapidly. We also want to enter the retail gas market,” PPC’s chief executive Manolis Panagiotakis told a parliamentary committee yesterday.

The PPC boss made clear the power utility’s intentions to look for alternative supply sources, beyond the gas utility DEPA. An older nine-year supply agreement with DEPA expires on December 31, 2020.

“We are already preparing ourselves for the period beyond the [current] DEPA agreement,” Panagiotakis informed. “LNG has arrived and Azerbaijani gas will soon also be here. We, too, want to connect with these sources. That’s our strategy,” he added.

PPC has also made arrangements to utilize the upgraded LNG terminal on Revythoussa, an islet just off Athens.

PPC ranks as one of the country’s biggest natural gas consumers. The power utility is expected to consume 15.7 million MWh of gas in 2019 to fuel four power stations, Aliveri V, Megalopoli V, Lavrio IV and Komotini. The corporation also requires gas amounts to begin trading in the country’s retail gas market.