Regulated electricity sale prices: the Authority recommends preparing for their disappearance and pursuing their public policy objectives through other mechanisms

Under article L.337-9 of the energy code, the Authority has provided the ministers responsible for energy and the economy with a report evaluating the regulated tariffs for the sale of electricity (TRV ). As part of this report, the Authority notes, like in 2021that if the electricity retail sales markets have been opened to competition in France, 59% of individual consumers and 35% of small non-residential consumers use TRVs. In light of the planned disappearance, on December 31, 2025, of regulated access to historic nuclear electricity, the Authority recommends that the Government thoroughly review the organization of electricity markets in France and prepare the removal of TRVs.

The TRVs pursue multiple objectives (social and territorial cohesion, consumer protection in particular) and are subject to dual management, economic by the Energy Regulatory Commission and political by the Government, which has sometimes deviated , in recent years, proposals for this. Based on a smoothing of the prices to which consumers are exposed, they constitute a reassuring offer for them which protects them from short-term wholesale price variations and exercises, due to their popularity, a guiding role for the entire consumer market. individual consumers and small non-residential consumers.

However, they do not constitute either a low price or a fixed price, and have not prevented ad hoc interventions by public authorities in the level of retail prices, which they sometimes give rise to. In addition, they blur the price signal which should encourage consumers to be more energy efficient and have a strong impact on competition, by limiting suppliers’ outlets and the diversity of offers offered to consumers.

For these reasons, the Authority recommends preparing concretely for the abolition of TRVs, without renouncing the public policy objectives attributed to them but by allocating better targeted instruments to them, such as the designation of a supplier of last resort. . Failing this deletion, the Authority will make proposals with a view to their adjustment for the benefit of greater competition in the retail markets.