Falling demand, mainly due to mild weather across Europe, and the large gas supplies procured in recent months have created favorable conditions for an initial reduction in the cost of energy supplies for hotels, restaurants, bars, and grocery stores. In January, in fact, some positive signs are coming from the energy markets, which are recording a drop in wholesale gas and electricity prices: natural gas prices have fallen to around 55 euros/MWh (a level recorded in 2021 when the war was yet to begin), while electricity prices are traveling steadily below 200 euros/MWh. This is the finding of theConfcommercio Energia Observatory, a quarterly analysis conducted in collaboration with Nomisma Energia.
Electricity, encouraging signs
According to estimates, for all categories of the tertiary sector, encouraging signs are coming in: in January 2023, compared to last October 2022 surveys, an average reduction in the cost of electricity supplies of 12 percent is estimated. For a hotel, the reduction in spending between October 2022 and January 2023 is around 9,000 euros (-4 percent), while for a restaurant it is around 3,000 euros (-11 percent). For food and non-food stores, spending on electricity supply falls by 13 percent and 21 percent, respectively. The café category also sees savings of 1,000 euros (-11%). However, despite the slight improvement, do not be misled: the cost of electricity still remains very high. From the July 2022 surveys to the present, the annual electricity bill has risen, for a typical hotel, by +57% (with a 'delta that is around 70,000 euros), for a restaurant up to +49%, while for a food store the expenditure rises from 35,000 euros in July 2022 to around 51,000 euros (+44%), for a bar the annual electricity bill increases by 50%, while for non-food stores the increase can reach +35%. In the face of these figures, it becomes urgent to extend the sterilization of general system charges (which, it should be recalled, weigh almost 25 percent on the electricity bill) also in favor of utilities with available power greater than 16.5 kW, which are currently excluded from the measure.
Gas, reduced spending on a quarterly basis
On the natural gas front, particularly significant is the reduction in supply spending on a quarterly basis: between October 2022 and January 2023, spending for all tertiary sectors taken as a reference has in fact decreased significantly, reaching average decreases of 33 percent. For hotels -14,000 euros compared to the October 2022 forecast. Equally important is the reduction in the annual gas bill in the restaurant sector, which fell from 20,000 euros in the October forecast to an estimated 13,000 euros in January (a difference of 7,000 euros in just a few months). On the other hand, a -35 percent is recorded for bars and food and non-food stores.
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