Millions of French people are about to see their gas bills increase significantly. After a few months of respite, the average price will increase by 11.7% in July compared to June, announced this Monday, June 10, 2024, the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE). The average level of the reference price will be at €129.20 including tax per megawatt hour (MWh) compared to €142.70/MWh in June, according to this monthly reference index published on Monday, reports theFrance Media Agency.
Since bills are often presented in KWh, this corresponds to a gas reference price for July of around 13 cents/KWh. The regulator puts things into perspective: even if this price is increasing compared to June (+11.7%), it remains 3.5% lower than the average price of January 1, 2024.
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According to the energy police, the annual invoice including tax of a residential customer in offer indexed to this “benchmark price », would stand at €1,184 at July prices, compared to €1,060 per year in June, and €1,227 in January.
Rising maintenance costs
The reason for this increase? It is mainly due to the CRE’s decision in February to revalue for four years the tariff for transporting gas which arrives to homes and businesses, in other words, the toll that the network manager GRDF charges suppliers.
This network share which accounts for a small third of the bill “increases a little since increasing costs are spread over decreasing consumption”explained to theAFP Emmanuelle Wargon, president of the CRE.
In the period 2021-2023, the country’s gas consumption has in fact fallen by 20%. However, the networks are still there, and must support increasing maintenance costs while allowing the gradual integration of biogas.
