On Tuesday, the 13th of December, Latvia’s government decided to extend until the 30th of April 2023 the period during which protected electricity users are provided with increased benefits. The government also decided to expand the range of protected user benefit recipients, as reported by Ministry of Economics.
This support, considering the high electricity prices and current ratio of benefits, is at EUR 15 for poor or low-income household; EUR 15 for families with disabled children; EUR 15 for 1st group invalids or their guardian; EUR 20 for families with many children.
According to the ministry, to expand the range of recipients, it was decided to make it a duty for power providers to supply protected user service to more than 10 000 households.
This means that once rules have come into to force, support to protected users will need to be provided by Latvenergo JSC and TET LLC, which already provide it voluntarily, but also
Enefit LLC, for example, which has yet to implement this form of support, which would ensure the service is provided by the largest household power merchants.
At the same time, the government decided that protected users whose electricity merchant does not provide protected user trade service, will be allowed to unilaterally terminate the electricity trading contract without having to pay an early termination fee.