100 million euros more expensive: Finistère municipalities choked with new energy contracts – Bretagne
Bernard Gibergues had a “pleasant summer after two years of the covid crisis”. The resurgent mayor of Burg-Blanc (29) received a new blow after the start of the school year. A letter from Sdef, Finistere’s departmental energy union, informed him of the new amount of the municipal energy bill for 2023: an additional €270,000 for his village of 3,500 citizens. “How long will the repairs of buildings and roads not be done?” he annoys the elected official.
Bourg-Blanc is part of a procurement group created by Sdef in 2014, which currently has 389 members. This accounts for more than 90% of Finistère municipalities and municipalities (Brest Métropole is one of the exceptions). There is also a branch council and a number of nursing homes. All are signatories to three-year gas and electricity contracts that expire on December 31.
247 and an increase of 412%
The new ones, valid for 2023, 2024 and 2025, were signed in August with Engie for electricity and TotalEnergies for gas. Any municipal accountant’s nightmare: next year’s bill was expected to explode by around €100 million for all members: €74 million for electricity and €21.5 million for gas, an increase of 247 and 412% respectively. The figures presented in the protest motion proposed by Sdef at the end of September were then voted on by the municipal and inter-municipal councils.
This hyper-salty remark is going down very badly with Finistère city councilors, prompting Dominique Cap, president of the Association of Mayors and Presidents of the EPCI du Finistère (AMF 29), to organize a meeting “with the prefect and Sdef” on Friday. discuss the future contract”. “A cordial meeting, well discussed,” Plougastel-Daoulas mayor Dominique Cap (29) said on Telegram. There is a question on many lips: Did Sdef sign the contract at the beginning of the year and in very (very) unfavorable conditions? ?Electronic really experienced a summer surge, reaching even 1,000 euros at the end of August against a price of less than 50 euros on the wholesale market, as a result of the war in Ukraine and the detention of numerous French nuclear reactors in October 2019.
“Our cauldron is finished”
Antoine Corolleur, president of Sdef and mayor of Plourin (29), who contacted him, considered that he was “running out of steam” when he signed: “In previous years, electricity prices were always lower in the summer because the needs are less. Therefore, the procedure was carried out early enough to fall in July and August “We planned to start. But this year, the price was completely lower than usual, and we got it wrong like many of our colleagues,” he admits. Faced with quotes lasting only two hours and “multiple amounts”, we told ourselves that at some point we had to make a decision. .Especially since we have around 10,000 delivery points to register in the supplier database, it is long and complicated,” argues Antoine Corolleur.
Emmanuel Macron’s warning to local authorities came not long after, on September 22: “We offer you the price of electricity to renegotiate your contracts at crazy prices: don’t sign them today!” “. The advice of the prefect of Finistère also came too late: in a letter addressed to Sdef, a copy of which we obtained on September 26, he wrote that “he will understand
