Ministero della transizione ecologica (Ministry of Ecological Transition)

Dipartimento Energia (Energy Department)

Via Molise, 2 - 00187 Rome

European statistics on natural gas prices for household and final non-household customers.

Internal Eurostat classification system based on annual natural gas consumption bands and tax levels.

Household sector and final non-household sector (industry, services, offices, agriculture, etc).

The prices are collected in national currencies per GJ and according to different bands of consumption.

For the households sector, these bands are:

• D1: Customers consuming less than 20 GJ.
• D2: Customers consuming 20 GJ or more but less than 200 GJ.
• D3: Customers consuming 200 GJ or more.

For the final non-households sector, the bands are:

• I1: Customers consuming less than 1000 GJ.
• I2: Customers consuming 1000 GJ or more but less than 10000 GJ.
• I3: Customers consuming 10000 GJ or more but less than 100000 GJ.
• I4: Customers consuming 100000 GJ or more but less than 1000000 GJ.
• I5: Customers consuming 1000000 GJ or more but less than 4000000 GJ.
• I6: Customers consuming 4000000 GJ or more.

1- Semestrial prices:

These prices are reported twice a year and are divided in 3 levels:

• Level 1 prices: Prices excluding taxes and levies.
• Level 2 prices: Prices excluding VAT and other recoverable taxes and levies.
• Level 3 prices: Prices including all taxes and levies.

2- Annual prices:

These prices are reported once a year together with the data for the second semester and are divided into the following components and taxes:

• Energy and supply: commodity price for natural gas paid by the supplier or the price of natural gas at the point of entry into the transmission system, including, if applicable, the following end-user costs: storage costs plus costs relating to the sale of natural gas to final customers.
• Network cost: transmission and distribution tariffs, transmission and distribution losses, network costs, after-sale service costs, system service costs and meter rental and metering costs.
• Value added taxes (VAT): as defined in Council Directive 2006/112/EC.
• Renewable taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to the promotion of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and CHP generation.
• Capacity taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to strategic stockpiles, capacity payments and energy security; taxes on natural gas distribution; stranded costs and levies on financing energy regulatory authorities or market and system operators.
• Environmental taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges relating to air quality and for other environmental purposes; taxes on emissions of CO₂ or other greenhouse gases. This component includes the excise duties.
• All other taxes: taxes, fees, levies or charges not covered by any of the previous four categories: support for district heating; local or regional fiscal charges; island compensation; concession fees relating to licenses and fees for the occupation of land and public or private property by networks or other devices.

In addition to these elements, the network cost is split into the respective shares of transmission and distribution. The relative share of consumption in the different consumption bands is reported by the countries and used to calculate the single national natural gas prices (weighted averages for consumer bands IA-IF and DA-DE).

Italy was granted a derogation by the Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 from producing statistical data for reference years 2017 and 2018 for:

• Point 6(a) of Annex I related to the sub-components on network prices and to the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges;
• Point 5(a) of Annex II related to the sub-components on network prices and to the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges.

Therefore, Italy did not submit the sub-components on network prices and the sub-components on taxes, fees, levies and charges for 2017 and 2018.

Natural gas bills include excise duties, regional surcharges, VAT and general levies. The general levies are components of the transmission/distribution charges, and their rates are defined by the ARERA (National Regulatory Authority).

Except for VAT, which is recoverable for non-household customers, all the other levies are not recoverable.

TAX COMPONENTS

FOR HOUSEHOLD USERS 

• GS covering the “social bonus” (only for central heating)
• RE covering energy saving actions and renewable energy development
• UG2 covering compensation of retail marketing costs
• UG3 covering costs arising from arrears

EXCISE DUTY:

• annual consumption lower than 120 m³: 1,155 €/GJ north, 0,997 €/GJ south;
• annual consumption from 120 to 480 m³: 4,593 €/GJ north, 3,453 €/GJ south;
• annual consumption from 480 to 1560 m³: 4,462 €/GJ north, 3,150 €/GJ south;
• annual consumption greater than 1560 m³: 4,882 €/GJ north, 3,937 €/GJ south.

REGIONAL SURCHARGE:

• set at zero for Valle d’Aosta, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicilia, Lombardia;
• ranging from 0,136 to 0,814 €/GJ in other regions.

VAT:

• 10% for annual consumption lower than 480 m³/year;
• 22%  for annual consumption greater than 480 m³/year.

FOR NON-HOUSEHOLD USERS 

• GS covering the “social bonus”
• RE covering energy saving actions and renewable energy development
• UG2 covering compensation of retail marketing costs
• UG3 covering costs arising from arrears

EXCISE DUTY:

• 0,328 €/GJ for annual consumption lower than 1,200,000 m³;
• 0,197 €/GJ   for annual consumption greater than 1,200,000 m³.

REGIONAL SURCHARGE:

• set at zero for Valle d’Aosta, Trentino Alto Adige, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Sicilia, Lombardia;
• ranging from 0,135 to 0,164 €/GJ in other regions.

VAT:

• rate 10% for extraction, agriculture, manifatcturing;
• rate 22% for others activities.

Starting from October 2021, the Italian Government has implemented extraordinary and temporary measures to contain the exceptional increases in energy prices with the allocation of resources from the State Budget. It was, therefore, possible to set to zero the RE, the GS and the UG3 elements and to reduce the VAT rate at 5%.

The components have been set to zero for the fourth quarter of 2021 and for the first three quarters of 2022.

Household and final non-household consumers divided into consumption bands.

Household customers: Data coming from 431 suppliers’ answers (of which 6 without clients) out of 544 and representing 99% of the household customers consumption.

Final non-household customers: Data coming from 431 suppliers’ answers (of which 7 without clients) out of 544 and representing 85% of the final non-household customers consumption.

Whole country

Natural gas prices data for Italy are available since 2007.

Not applicable.

Prices are reported in national currency per GJ. However, Eurostat also calculates and publishes the prices in EURO and PPS (purchasing power parity) and do the conversion to kWh.

Relative shares of sub-component of the network component and consumption volumes are reported in percentages.

For semestrial prices, the reference periods are from January to June for semester 1 and from July to December for semester 2.

For annual prices, the reference period is the whole calendar year (from January to December).

At EU level:

• Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 October 2016 on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices and repealing Directive 2008/92/EC (Text with EEA relevance).
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2169 of 21 November 2017 concerning the format and arrangements for the transmission of European Statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).
• Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2018/1734 of 14 November 2018 granting derogations to the Federal Republic of Germany, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic and the Republic of Cyprus as regards the provision of statistics pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (notified under document C(2018) 7465) (Text with EEA relevance).
• Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/823 concerning the content of quality reports on European statistics on natural gas and electricity prices pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/1952 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance).

At national level:

• Law 14 November 1995, n. 481/95 (https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1995/11/18/095G0522/sg)
• ARERA Resolution ARG/gas 64/09 of May 29th, 2009 and subsequent amendments (https://www.arera.it/it/docs/09/064-09arg.htm)

At EU level:

• Eurostat does not share the data collected with other organisation appart from its usual dissemination chanel (Eurostat's database, statistic explained articles and press or news release) .

At national level:

• Data is sent to Eurostat.
• Data is shared at the national level with IEA.

At EU level:

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

At national level:

• The data collected in the price survey are considered confidential and private; sensitive data are not disseminated except in aggregate and anonymous form. The processing of the requested data is carried out in accordance with legislative decree 30 June 2003, as amended and supplemented by the legislative decree 10 August 2018 n.101 (https://www.normattiva.it/uri-res/N2Ls?urn:nir:stato:decreto.legislativo:2003-06-30;196!vig=)

Published do not allow the identification of single consumers.

Data are not yet published but only sent to Eurostat and IEA in aggregate form.

No release calendar is published.

There is no calendar.

Not applicable.

Italian natural gas prices are published on a semestrial basis on Eurostat's website.

Italian natural gas prices are published on a semestrial basis on IEA's price statistics.

No national press release related to the data.

No publication related to the data.

No national database related to the data.

Not applicable.

Dataset is not accessible as micro-data.

No other ways of dissemination.

Not applicable.

A handbook with instructions to fill in web questionnaires for submitting data is provided to suppliers.

The handbook is available here: https://www.arera.it/allegati/operatori/raccolte_dati/manuali/2021/PrezziMediGAS21.pdf

100%

No document related to quality exists.

Compliance of suppliers in submitting data is monitored.

The quality of the data is ensured by the dissemination of an instruction manual for completing the questionnaires as well as the availability of a dedicated helpdesk service which helps the suppliers in compiling the data and an accurate process of data validation.

The quality of the statistical outputs is guaranteed by the high number of respondents to the survey. Possible quality deficiencies can come from: the poor accuracy of the billing databases from which the suppliers draw the data; by invoicing adjustments including invoicing adjustments from delayed meter readings.

The only user of the data is Eurostat and the needs are fulfilled except for the data points for which Italy is derogated.

There isn't any method in place for measuring the satisfaction of users.

100%

100%

Potential errors:
- Error of the provider;
- Bad filter over the period;
- Bad consideration of new and outgoing customers in the assignment of consumption bands;
- Error input in the online questionnaires.

The error in the estimate of average prices is low as the companies that do not usually respond in each edition of the data collection are those of very small size.
Companies responding to the survey covers an extremely large share of the natural gas market.

Given the high percentage of the population represented the sampling error is considered negligible. 

No precisions measures of the sampling error are available. 

Information is included in the sub-concepts S.13.3.1-S.13.3.5.

Given the high percentage of the population represented, all different kinds of households (single persons, couples, families, etc.) and non-households (different services, big, small, etc.) are well represented in the sample.

No over-coverage data reported belong to the target population.

100% of the data come from the survey.

No estimates of the measurement error are available.

See points below.

There is a number of suppliers that do not answer the survey although they are asked for. It is impossible to know the exact number of companies that have to submit data in the survey for household customers or for industrial customers, because it is not known in advance what kind of customers they sell. The sellers who must participate in the survey, in fact, are those who in the ARERA's companies registry has declared to carry out the activity of selling to final customers. In the registry, however, it is not required to indicate whether the sale is aimed at household or industrial customers.

0%.

The processing error is unlike since the survey is fully automated. The survey is web-based: to send data, suppliers must complete online questionnaires and/or upload XML files. The data delivered is stored in databases through well-established routines.

Not Applicable.

Natural gas providers that participate in the national data collection are requested to provide the natural gas price data within 45 days after the reference period. After arrival, the statistical office checks the micro-data for correctness, consistency and completeness and national averages are calculated and reported to Eurostat during the third month after the reference period.

Some suppliers do not respect 45 days deadline or do not submit data at all. Starting from the survey on prices for the first semester of 2022, to increase punctuality and the rate of response, ARERA has adopted a new resolution that gives a penalty to suppliers that do not submit data.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 93 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 93 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 98 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 92 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2019 was sent 93 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2019 was sent 93 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2020 was sent 98 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2020 was sent 92 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 1st semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

The first version of the natural gas price questionnaire for non-households for the 2nd semester of 2021 was sent 90 days after the reference period.

Not applicable.

The legal deadline for submitting the questionnaires is the third month after the reference period.

See point 14.1.1

No problem of comparability between country or regions.

Not applicable

There have been some changes but not enough to warrant the designation of a break in series.
Changes with a very limited impact were made on the general charges applied in the bill.

28 semesters.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

Annual prices are coherent with the semestrial prices.

The cost or burden for the production of statistical data on respondents is not measured. However, the answer of suppliers is facilitated by an online questionnaire in the form of successive tables of figures to be completed or by the submission of an XML file. The accuracy of the figures requested requires the implementation of queries on billing databases, the support of IT departments, back offices.

Semester n data are checked immediately after the delivery of the data.
Semester n-1 data are also revised when submitting the semester n data for consistency reasons between semestrial and annual prices.

Revisions are requested to the suppliers immediately after the delivery of the data, when data are inconsistent with those previously submitted or when the values are very distant from the average values.

Revisions are requested to the suppliers immediately after the delivery of the data, when data are inconsistent with those previously submitted or when the values are very distant from the average values.

Households gas prices collection (PRGAH): 0

Non-households gas prices collection (PRGAI): 0

A specific survey is carried out by ARERA. Prices submitted come from suppliers’ billing databases.

Quarterly

On-line survey. Suppliers must fill in web-based questionnaires. Alternatively, suppliers can upload data via XML files

Price data are requested by:

• Type of customer (household/central heating/commercial activities/industrial activities)
• Type of network (national/local)
• Type of contracts (free market, standard offer regime, last resort service for default situations)
• Annual consumption (12 classes)
• Customer residence (20 administrative regions)

Input data is validated for consistency and completeness.

In case of inconsistent price data, the data providers are contacted to request a reconfirmation of the data.

Validation activities also include: checking that the population coverage and response rates are as required; comparing the statistics with previous cycles; confronting the statistics against other relevant data (internal); investigating inconsistencies in the statistics; verifying the statistics against expectations and domain intelligence, outlier detection.

Average price = Sum of gas sale revenues (€) / Sum of gas sale energy (giga joule)

(relating all firms participating in the survey)

National prices are weighted by sold volumes (for each band individually).

0%

Not applicable.

Seasonable adjustments are not carried out.