Smart meter bonus: the start of incentives for smart savings

Smart meter bonus: the start of incentives for smart savings
Smart meter bonus: the start of incentives for smart savings

Numerous innovations have been included within the competition bill, starting from the incentives for smart meters up to those concerning the concessions of space to itinerant vendors: let’s discover together those that could directly interest us the most.

What is the competition bill?

As explained by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, the Competition Bill “fits fully within the framework of the measures and interventions for the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan” under a dual profile: firstly, the annual approval of a law on competition’ is one of the commitments undertaken within the same Pnrr; secondly, the bill contains a series of provisions aimed at ensuring the achievement of some ‘milestones’ set in the framework of the Plan”.

The incentive bonus for smart meters

Explained in this way, however, the competition bill tells us little: let’s understand it better by discovering the innovations it introduces, starting with the “bonus” incentives for smart, electricity and gas meters. The promotion of the use of these devices, together with the strengthening and planning of the development of the national electricity grid, has the “purpose of promoting energy saving and containing the price of electricity”.

The theme of the concession of spaces for street vendors

A complex issue, that of the sale and distribution of public areas for the retail trade. The note from the ministry reads: “the assignment of the concessions through public tenders is envisaged, starting immediately from the spaces not yet assigned, safeguarding the legitimate expectations of the current concessionaires who will be able to benefit from a renewal of the current concessions in via outstanding for 12 years. The provision brings the discipline back into the framework of European rules, stating that parking concessions for the exercise of trade in public areas are issued for a ten-year term. In this sense, the following parameters are foreseen:

  • Specific social clauses aimed at promoting the employment stability of the personnel employed.
  • The enhancement of the dimensional requirements of the micro-enterprise category.
  • A maximum number of concessions that each operator may own, possess or hold”.

All the news of the competition bill

The other innovations of the competition bill mainly concern the following points:

  • The introduction of the cold ironing process, i.e. the practice that allows the shutdown of naval engines stationary at the port; in doing so, energy is still supplied but better air quality is ensured.
  • It promotes “greater competition and choice in the pharmaceutical sector, without reducing the quality of the services and products offered to users, also in order to start a process of reducing the prices charged in the relative markets”.
  • “Provisions are introduced for the strengthening and rationalization of the powers of assessment and sanctioning of the Competition and Market Authority (AGCM), at the same time strengthening the guarantees of defense of the subjects involved in the proceedings”.