Electricity | Other
Consumer protection mechanisms during the current and future periods of high and volatile energy prices
25 March 2022

Authors: POTOTSCHNIG, Alberto; GLACHANT, Jean-Michel; MEEUS, Leonardo; CONTI, Ilaria

The recent surge in energy prices has prompted many governments to introduce emergency measures to reduce the impact on consumers’ electricity and gas bills. In its REPowerEU Communication of 8 March 2022, the European Commission confirmed that price regulation can be used to mitigate the effect of higher energy prices on consumers’ bills. However, most government interventions and what the Commission refers to are measures to reduce the energy prices facing consumers. This type of measures weakens the incentives to save energy, and therefore runs counter to the more general energy policy objectives of sustainability and security of supply, including the reduction of the European Union’s dependence on Russia. In this Policy Brief, a more targeted approach, based on lump-sum rebate payments, which protects energy-poor consumers from unaffordable energy bills, while maintaining the incentives to save energy, is proposed.
logo cadmus Read it on Cadmus Download in open access

LATEST FSR PUBLICATIONS

Policy Brief
In December 2024, in her mission letter to Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas, President von der Leyen encouraged drafting a plan for an ambitious European High-Speed Rail Network to help connect EU [...]
Article
In this article, we contribute to the legal scholarship on the interaction between EU data governance and electricity legislation, analysing the impact the Data Act could have on the sharing [...]
Policy Brief
On 14 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals implementing its plan to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050. These included an intermediate target [...]

Join our community

To meet, discuss and learn in the channel that suits you best.

scroll

top