Five million households will have to wait even longer for electricity subsidies. The government’s plan for payment this spring has been delayed. – But we are not talking about this autumn, says Energy and Industry Minister Ebba Busch (KD) to TT. Busch says, in connection with a visit to the nuclear power plant in Forsmark, that as recently as last week she had a reconciliation with the relevant ministries and that “a lot is in phase” regarding the second round of electricity support for households. She does not want to go into what is not clear. This time, households in northern Sweden, in electricity areas 1 and 2, will also receive the support. They did not receive the initial support that most households in southern Sweden have received by now. The support is financed with bottleneck fees that have mainly been paid to Svenska kraftnät by electricity customers in southern Sweden. The current support is estimated to amount to approximately ten billion kroner, the first is assumed to have comprised approximately 17 billion kroner. Previously, Ebba Busch and other government representatives have said that the second round of electricity subsidies to households will be paid out by Försäkringskassan sometime in the spring. But the Minister of Energy and Nutrition does not sound as sure about it anymore. Talking months – The forecast looks good because in a few weeks we could come back with a little more precision in time, I dare not say a date. But a time span in any case, says Busch, but emphasizes that her assessment is that it will not take until this autumn. – We are talking months, not six months, I dare say that much. The government has received criticism because some of the money in the first round of household support for southern Sweden went to companies, probably there were a number of businessmen who have an individual company among them. It may be about farmers with the electricity contract for the household where Försäkringskassan has not been able to distinguish between households and businesses. The person who received the highest electricity subsidy received over SEK 700,000 for the period October 2021 through September 2022. In the current subsidy for November and December, there is a cap on how much consumption can be subsidized. Companies waiting Companies in southern Sweden are still waiting for their first electricity subsidy. The government’s ambition is that they should be able to start applying for support on May 30, provided that the support model is approved by the European Commission. In the election campaign, the current government parties and the support party SD promised that a model as protection against high electricity prices would be in place on 1 November and that the finances of households and companies would be saved by Christmas. The first round of electricity subsidies for southern Sweden began to be paid out at the end of February.
t4-general