Gas prices will increase between 5.5% and 10.4% on July 1, announces the Energy Regulatory Commission

Les prix du gaz naturel vont augmenter à nouveau. Ce sera à partir du 1er juillet prochain, a confirmé dimanche Emmanuelle Wargon, présidente de la Commission de régulation de l'énergie. MAXPPP – guillaume bonnaud

Emmanuelle Wargon, its president, confirmed it this Sunday February 4 on Franceinfo. Reason given: the drop in consumption, which increases maintenance costs.

President of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE), Emmanuelle Wargon confirmed this Sunday, February 4, the increase in the price of gas for consumers on July 1, 2024. This increase will be 5.5% for heating and 10.4% for hot water and cooking, as presented on Friday February 2 by the CRE.

For the consumer, the increase will represent on average, respectively, "7.3 euros tax included per month, on the total bill of an average heating customer as presented in the benchmark gas sales price (PRVG) published each month by the CRE", and "2.2 euros including tax per month on the total bill of an average domestic hot water/cooking customer as presented in the PRVG".

Prices for the next four years

The president of the CRE justifies these increases by "consumption which is falling". But also by the cost of maintaining the "pipes", which allow the gas to be transported. "These pipes must be maintained, they must be replaced when they fail.

As consumption falls, costs are thus spread across fewer consumers. "Obviously consumer by consumer, that's a little bit more", observed Emmanuelle Wargon. Friday, the CRE had detailed price changes for GRDF's natural gas distribution networks over the next four years, from 2024 to 2027.

"Gradual reduction in gas consumption"

The setting of these new tariffs falls, according to the CRE, "within the framework of the orientations of the next Multi-annual Programming of the& rsquo;Energy (PPE), which will concretely commit our country towards carbon neutrality by 2050". It plans "a gradual reduction in gas consumption and an increase in biomethane production".

These increases will therefore have to meet investment needs. "It is necessary to prepare the gas distribution networks for these challenges while controlling costs over time", specifies the CRE. "In the price that arrives for the next four years, we have planned all the necessary investments for biomethane (…) That's part of the price", explained its president.