ATHENS – Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas on Wednesday announced the subsidies for electricity and natural gas that will apply in February for households and enterprises.

The average subsidy for electricity will be 39 euros for households and 65 euros for enterprises. The overall cost of the support measures to offset the high cost of energy will exceed two billion euros.

The total package of measures amounts to 350 million euros for February, while he also announced an extension of the deadline for applying to the “Exikonomo” programme until March 15.

The subsidy for households is for all primary residences, or roughly 4.2 million homes, irrespective of income or other criteria, while households that already qualify for the social residential tariff will get an subsidy of 51 euros on average.

For non-residential connections, the subsidy will remain the same at 0.065 euros per KWh.

For the roughly 540,000 households with natural gas connections, the subsidy will be 20 euros per thermal MWh for the month, irrespective of income or other criteria. DEPA Commercial will also continue to offer a discount of 20 euros per thermal MWh to its customers, so that the benefit for households will be 40 euros per thermal MWh in February.

Industrial and commercial natural gas consumers will have a subsidy of 20 euros per thermal MWh for their consumption in the February.

Skrekas said that the funds for the subsidies will come from carbon rights auctions and the surplus from the Special Fund for Renewable Energy Sources, given that production of electricity using solar and wind energy was currently comparatively cheaper than its production using natural gas or lignite coal.

“Apart, however, from direct subsidies, the government will also proceed with energy conservation actions that will reduce consumption and therefore bills on a permanent basis. A few days ago, we announced a programme for the replacement of air-conditioning units and refrigerators that can lead to a reduction of consumption that can exceed even 30 pct for a household. At the same time, the new ‘Exikonomo’ programme has begun, with applications by more than 80,000 households on its electronic platform. To facilitate the submission of applications, due to the emergency conditions that prevailed during the first month that the programme started, we are extending the operation of the platform until March 15,” Skrekas said.

“The new series of measures that we are announcing today confirm this government’s commitment to support households and businesses for as long as this unprecedented energy crisis lasts,” he added.