EU Draft Energy Plan May Allow for Lower Electricity Cuts

Lit street lights on the river banks of the Seine at night in Paris, France, on Thursday, July 28, 2022. Although economic expansion in France beat expectations by a distance, the European energy crisis is pushing up the cost of electricity in the wholesale market for the whole of Europe, with French forward prices surging to almost 1,000% more than their decade-long average through 2020. , Bloomberg

Vernon Silver, Bloomberg News

Sep 25, 2022

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(Bloomberg) --

The European Union’s plan to contain the energy crunch will give member states leeway to cut electricity consumption less than currently proposed, Corriere della Sera reported, citing a draft document.

The European Commission aims to publish on Sept. 28 a document detailing future steps the bloc could take to ease the crisis, Bloomberg reported earlier.

The proposal under consideration says each state must reduce energy consumption by 5% per hour during peak price hours, representing at least 10% of all hours from Dec. 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023, Corriere reported.

However an update to the draft now says countries may decide to set a target for a different percentage of peak hours, as long as at least 7% of peak hours are covered, the Italian newspaper said.

With consumers in the EU’s 27 member states reeling from record energy bills after Russia cut natural gas supplies, governments are pushing the Commission for region-wide solutions to mitigate the crisis. 

 

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