Gas, consumption in the EU down by 17.7% in the last 8 months. Super bills? The Italians paid for them – Corriere.it

The consumption of natural gas in the European Union between August 2022 and March 2023 decreased on average by 17.7% compared to the same eight months considered between 2017 and 2022. In Italy the reduction was around 20%. what emerges from the latest data published by Eurostat. The cut exceeds the voluntary 15% target agreed by national governments and foreseen in the RePowerEu package to deal with the energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine.

Bill payments respected even with expensive energy

Meanwhile, Arera – the energy market authority – has released monitoring data on the payments of electricity and gas bills, which were substantially respected in 2022, both in the free and protected markets. The first Arera monitoring shows that despite price levels never recorded before, the percentage of payments paid by households was 96.6% for the electricity sector and 94.6% for gas already in the first month following the expiry of the invoice.
This, the note adds, demonstrated how the system has substantially held up, thanks to the consolidated regulatory framework and the measures in support of businesses and households put in place by the government and the Authority. The monitoring conducted confirmed the extremely responsible behavior of Italian consumers, despite the presence of objective difficulties, confirming what has already been seen in the Covid phase.
Arera also underlines the important effort of the government in terms of resources injected into the system, in terms of bonuses and tariff concessions especially in the winter period, the attention of the operators in meeting difficult situations and the constant support action of the associations of consumers as stated by Stefano Besseghini, president of Arera.