The consumer association CLCV (Consumption, housing and living environment) denounces false declarations of need for electricity to EDF by certain suppliers with the aim of realizing juicy capital gains. The CLCV has lodged an appeal with the Council of State, while the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE) and the Fraud Department (DGCCRF) are currently conducting three investigations.
It is a sea serpent in the electricity sector in France. Indeed, energy suppliers benefit from the production of EDF to buy low-cost electricity – 42 euros per megawatt hour – thanks to the Arenh, or Regulated Access to Historic Nuclear Electricity.
At the heart of the energy crisis in 2022, the executive had even asked EDF to release a larger part of its production to alternative suppliers – 160 trawatt hours instead of 120 – to avoid massive price increases. Indeed, not everything purchased at this attractive price was sold at full market price. But have the suppliers played the game? No, according to the consumer association CLCV (Consumption, housing and living environment) which denounces false declarations of need with the aim of realizing juicy capital gains.
The CLCV has just lodged an appeal with the Council of State, revealing The Parisian this Tuesday while the Energy Regulation Commission (CRE) and the Fraud Department (DGCCRF) are currently conducting three joint investigations on the subject. The investigators would have identifies malicious vendors. Worse, these would not be their first attempt. Finally, an information mission is also currently being carried out at the Senate.
A 16% increase in the regulated tariff directly linked to these practices
In addition, if EDF sells more, it buys more itself on the markets, which automatically increases the sales regulation tariff (TRV), which is not about to disappear like that of gas. The more EDF’s competitors declare large volumes, the higher the regulated tariff, to which three-quarters of French households still subscribe, will be raised, confirms Franois Carlier, the association’s general delegate in the daily columns.
Knowing that the TRV serves as a reference for the majority of market offers proposed by alternative suppliers, the consumer inevitably comes out the loser. A 16% increase in TRV is even directly linked to these practices according to the CLCV, which assesses this peak at several tens of euros per year on top of household bills.
In the meantime, the government has extended the tariff shield until the beginning of 2025. The device, which had already been extended at the beginning of the year until the end of 2023, made it possible to cap the increase in the regulated tariff of the electricity 4% in 2022 and 15% in 2023. But what will happen after this date?