Ribera asks the energy companies to size their services to give access to the high demand for change to the TUR

Oct. 26 () –

The Third Vice President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, has asked the energy companies to scale up their customer service services to grapple with the avalanche of requests to change the regulated gas rate.

In statements to the press when questioned regarding the file opened by the National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) to determine whether the natural gas last resort tariff (TUR) marketers are putting obstacles in the way of this transfer, Ribera made it clear that “the task of “competition is to ensure that the markets work well and that the operators in this sector have dimension in their templates, in order to be able to respond to the needs of the clients”.

Thus, he considered that if the companies recognize that there has been “such an avalanche” that their customer service services are not prepared, and indicated that, perhaps, what must be done is to dimension them so that they are prepared.

Regarding the green gas and hydrogen infrastructure project between Barcelona and Marseille, the so-called BarMar, the minister indicated that it was not addressed directly yesterday in the Council of Ministers of the EU, although she added that “two key issues” remain regarding this connection , such as having a design of its basic and technical characteristics, as well as cost and schedule, and “a conversation with the Commission so that it is considered a project of community interest that can receive community funding”.

He also added that at the meeting of ministers there were several of them, “who were not even from Spain, France and Portugal”, who publicly thanked the agreement to promote this corridor.

THERE CANNOT BE VERY IMPORTANT EXTRAORDINARY BENEFITS

On the other hand, Ribera referred to the business results that are becoming known these days and stressed that what is “important” is that the accounts of the groups “are transparent.” “Make the accounts transparent to understand how prices are set and where profits are set,” she said.

In this sense, he said that there may be benefits associated with corporate operations and “there may be benefits associated with a very significant increase in prices that is not justified in relation to the costs that companies have to assume.”

Thus, he warned that there can be “very important” extraordinary benefits for large companies in exchange for a “very important” increase in costs for consumers.