Unless the government decides to freeze gas prices for 2024, as it has already done with electricity prices, households will face a price shock.
Horror gas bills for 2024, 100% higher than this year, many families received from the Polish oil and gas company. This is the effect of freezing gas prices for consumers in 2023 without a decision on whether to continue it. However, perhaps the company will reduce the size of the increases, but it will still hit family budgets hard.
Contents
- Electricity bills for 2024 still covered and no gas?
- PGNiG withdraws from plans for a massive increase in gas prices?
- What will actual gas prices be in 2024?
Right now, there is so much confusion with gas bills in 2024 that Polskie Górnictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo (PGNiG) has announced that it will cancel bills at PLN 516.73 per MWh and send new ones to customers.
In 2023, the price has been frozen by the Gas Consumer Protection Act in 2023, and is PLN 200.17 per MWh. In addition to families, they are entitled, for example, to cooperatives and housing associations.
Electricity bills for 2024 still covered and no gas?
Let us remind you that speculation about a significant increase in household electricity bills was soon cut off by the government by adopting a draft amendment to the Energy Consumer Protection Law in 2023 and immediately sending it to the House of Representatives, and the House of Representatives quickly passed the amendment.
At the same time, a new limit, 1,000 kWh higher, of frozen-price electricity was adopted retroactively, thus also covering 2023.
They are now:
- My home: 3,000 kWh (for 2023 there was a 2,000 kWh limit),
- Households with a disabled person: 3,600 kWh (previously 2,600 kWh),
- House with large family capacity: 4,000 kWh (was 3,000 kWh)
- Farmer family: 4,000 kWh (3,000 kWh).
Meanwhile, the extension of the provisions on frozen gas prices is still pending. Perhaps because on gas exchanges, despite some stability, large price movements have not yet stopped.
As we know, the sharp jump in electricity and gas prices was the result of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Although the war continues, gas prices have fallen on world markets, although uncontrollable ups and downs can still be observed. While in the case of electricity prices, it is a result of the increasing share of solar energy, whose production is subject to fluctuations related to natural factors, and in the case of gas exchange, it is speculation in the market.
The fact is, as reported by the Office for Energy Regulation (URE) that in the first quarter of 2023, the price of natural gas purchased in the EU was on average PLN 296.51/MWh, which means a decrease of PLN 140 compared to the first quarter of 2022.
It is therefore difficult to understand where such a huge price of PLN 516.73 / MWh in 2024 on PGNiG invoices already sent to recipients came from.
PGNiG withdraws from plans for a massive increase in gas prices?
Now the company is withdrawing from the process. “After the decision was made, PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny has already sent tens of thousands of forecasts at a new lower price to its customers. On the other hand, all customers who have received payment plans for 2024 at the previously used price of PLN 516.73 / MWh, resulting from the tariff applied to the company, will soon receive revised forecasts at a lower price for 2024, i.e. PLN 200.17 / MWh. These customers may consider the predictions made Previously received with a payment date after January 1, 2024 is invalid, PGNiG reports in a special statement.
In addition, PGNiG informs that the gas price currently used by PGNiG Obrót Detaliczny to calculate forecasts for both 2023 and 2024 is caused by the law on special protection for some gas fuel consumers in 2023 in relation to the situation on the gas market and is PLN 200.17 / MWh. It can be used by families, as well as cooperatives and residential communities as well as socially sensitive beneficiaries such as hospitals, nursing homes, kindergartens and nurseries.
In addition, it is trying to reassure customers who have already received horror bills for 2024, announcing that the bills will be adjusted to actual gas consumption taking into account the price that will actually be applied in 2024. This means that the final amount that customers will pay for gas saved may change next year in relation to the forecast.
The company also gives retail customers the option to pay for gas on a monthly basis based on actual gas consumption. For this, however, you need to change the contract and personally read the meters every month.
What will actual gas prices be in 2024?
Nothing has changed in the legal regulations. Certainly, regardless of the prices in the global markets, the final price of gas that households will pay in the coming year will certainly be affected by the fact that the 0% VAT rate, which was introduced temporarily by the government at the time of the pandemic, has ceased to be applied to gas as of January 1, 2023.
It is also important whether, as in the case of electricity prices, the government decides to freeze gas prices in 2024. While decisions on electricity have already been taken, in the case of gas, it is likely that the decision will be postponed in order to build market gas price forecasts on the most complete data possible, that is, until the last quarter of the year, as Minister Jacek Sasin announced some time ago.
Ultimately, gas prices, like electricity rates, are subject to approval by the Office of Energy Regulation. Therefore, if the government ultimately decides not to freeze gas prices, the head of the Energy Regulatory Office will have the final say on the amount of gas for households in 2024.
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