This year’s electricity bill skyrocketed and it was necessary to resort to the remnants of the Chamber to pay it

MADRID, 23 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Congress of Deputies has announced a competition to hire a marketer who is in charge of managing the electricity and gas supply of the Chamber without losing sight of savings. The base budget for the tender is 4,996,000 euros, taxes included.

This is stated in the specifications approved by the Congress Table, to which Europa Press has had access, in which it is detailed that the contract will be for one year, with the possibility of extending it for another year, and that the companies that want to compete have to Submit offers until next November 23.

Specifically, the contract will consist of three lots: one for the supply of high-voltage electrical energy for the Congress buildings (4.53 million), another for low-voltage electrical energy (30,000 euros) and the third for the supply of natural gas (430,000 euros).

The Congress will jointly contract the acquisition of energy supply and access to networks with a marketing company. The winning company will be responsible for managing and processing, on behalf of the Chamber, the provision of supply to the different distribution companies.

Whoever wins the contract will have to process before the distribution company the modifications in the contracted powers that are deemed appropriate “for the optimization of the invoice”. For the same purpose, the Chamber “reserves the power to modify the contracted powers, even before awarding the contract, as they are merely estimates,” according to the specifications.

Likewise, the winning company must propose to Congress those powers that optimize access billing during the execution of the contract and monitor them at least every six months “in order to determine new adjustments throughout the duration of the contract” .

Congress calculates that it will close this year with an electricity bill that will triple that of 2021 and to face this rise last June it decided to authorize an increase in spending amounting to 3.72 million. That money came from the Chamber’s surplus account, which as of March 31, 2021, the closing date of the 2020 financial year, had 104.98 million.

The institution estimates that in 2023 the cost of electricity supply will increase by 294%, which is why it has already increased the corresponding budget item in its accounts for the following year.

The chapter for current expenses in goods and services of the Budget for 2023 amounts to 45.41 million euros, 20.63% more than the previous year, when 37.64 million were budgeted. The increase is explained by this increase in the price of electricity and also gas. The forecast is that the gas bill will rise by 77.78%.