ATHENS – A Ministerial Decision that caps wholesale electricity prices charged by power producers to power providers, with different rates depending on the technology used, was published on Thursday. This is the cornerstone of the government’s policy for containing retail prices paid by consumers.

Under the mechanism, the revenues that arise based on the difference between the cap and the daily prices on the enery exchange will be directed to the Energy Transition Fund in order to finance the subsidies of household and business electricity bills. Suppliers are also required to announced the prices they will charge each month, at least two months before they start to apply.

When the mechanism first goes into operation on July 10, the prices that will apply in August will be announced, while the rates for September will be announced on July 31. The rates announced are expected to be high because they will not include the subsidies that providers had offered their clients up until now. The final prices for consumers will be significantly lower, however, once the state subsidies per KWh are also factored in.

According to the decision, the cap for power producers in July will be as follows:

– 112 euros per MWh for hydroelectric power

– 85 euros per MWh for other renewable energy sources

– 208.29 euros per MWh for power from coal-fired units

– 292 euros per MWh for power from combined cycle natural gas units

– 408.47 euros per MWh for power from open cycle natural gas units

The cap will be fixed for hydroelectric and RES power plants, while for other means of power production it will use a mathematical formula that will calculate the cap on a monthly basis, depending on international prices for natural gas, carbon emission rights and the efficiency of the units. The cap will be calculated on the second-to-last working day of each month and set the price for the billing of the next month.