ROMA (ITALPRESS) – In the course of 2025, the wholesale prices of gas and electricity in Italy showed a trend to decrease (-28% for gas and -36% for electricity in the first five months compared to the beginning of the year), thanks also to the policies of containment of the charges adopted by the Government, but in the final part of the year a new climb with the energy bill of the enterprises that is still very high above. On average, in fact, in 2025, the electricity bill for the companies of the market tertiary has increased by 28.8% compared to 2019, last year considered “normal” before the pandemic and the shocks that hit the energy markets, that of the gas even of 70.4%. Significant increases also in comparison between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the fourth quarter of 2019: +38.9% for electricity and +52.6% for gas. To affect electric bills, in particular, is not only the energy component (60% of the total), but also the general system charges, returned to weigh for almost 20% on the total after the end of emergency measures: These are the main results that emerge from the Report 2025 of the Confcommercio Energia Observatory (OCEN) which analyses in particular the impact of energy prices on market tertiary companies.
In the light of this data and in view of the expected, new energy measure, Confcommercio in a letter sent to the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, highlighted the need for regulatory instruments and support policies to better protect the companies of the market tertiary, especially those of small and medium size. In the letter, Confcommercio emphasized, in particular, the need to make structural interventions on system charges and to reform the electric market, activating the decoupling from the price of gas and guaranteeing to SMEs calmed prices of energy, expressing, moreover, the hope of favouring the effective participation of SMEs in Energy Release, and to strengthen the mechanisms of support to demand, such as the
According to the report of Confcommercio, the most penalized sectors, adding the costs of the electricity bill with that of the gas of the last quarter 2025, are the average hotels with 9.117 euros of average monthly expenditure, follow the large shops (5.979 euros), the small hotels (5.263 euros), the food shops (2.334 euros), the restaurants (2.083 euros), the bars (1.009 euros), the non-food shops). These data confirm that the cost of energy continues to be a brake on the competitiveness of market tertiary enterprises and that are even more penalizing in comparison with other European countries. In 2025, in fact, the average price of electricity in Italy wholesale is higher than 79.6% compared to France, 78.7% compared to Spain and 27% compared to Germany. It should also be noted that, between 2019 and 2025, electricity in Italy increased by 122%, almost double compared to France (+64%) and three and a half times compared to Spain (+36%).
The amounts of bills on equal terms of contract and consumption The analysis of data on electricity bills in the fourth quarter of 2025 shows a high expenditure on the second and third quarter of 2025. This increase is due to the recovery of system charges for low voltage non-domestic utilities with power available above 16.5 kW, reset to the two central quarters of 2025. All OCEN sectors have benefited from this reduction in costs in the second and third quarter of 2025, except for non-food stores, whose plants have an average power of 10 kW and were therefore not among the recipients of the measure. The increase in system charges resulted in an increase in the average monthly bill between the third and fourth quarter of 21% with 22% points for hotels, small and medium, and for large sales areas.
The comparison between the electricity bill spending of the fourth quarter of 2025 and the average 2019, period considered “normal” before the pandemic and the energy crisis, offers an evaluation on the structural level of electricity bills. The cost of bills in the fourth quarter of 2025 was average higher than 39% compared to 2019. Considering that the cumulative inflation of general prices in the same period has been less than 20%, it is clear that we are still far from being able to fully absorb the effects of the energy crisis of the 2021-2022 period on electricity bills. The analysis of the composition of the average amounts of electricity bills shows a marked increase in the incidence of system charges in the fourth quarter of 2025. After falling to 5% in the average of the second and third quarter, their share on the total amount of the bill increased in the last quarter of the year to 20.4%. The analysis of gas bills data in the last three months of 2025 shows a decrease of 16% compared to the corresponding period of 2024. In a more than medium-term analysis, spending in the last three months of 2025, compared to the average period of 2019, considered “normal”, before pandemic and energy crisis, is more than 50% higher. Even in the case of gas, we are still very far from being able to consider entirely absorbed the effects on the gas bills of the energy crisis of the two-year period 2021-2022.
In particular, for non-food stores, in the last three months of 2025, the monthly amount of a gas contract at a variable price was 365 euros for a consumption of 300 m3 monthly. With the same contract and the same consumption, in 2019, a non-food store had paid on average 257 euros per month. December 2025 expenditure is therefore greater than 42.0% compared to average 2019 expenditure. Also at the end of 2025, the amount paid by an average hotel with a monthly consumption of 3000 m3 for a gas contract at a variable price stipulated in 2019 was 2598 euro. With the same contract and the same consumption, the hotel had paid in 2019 an average monthly amount of 1656 euros. Compared to the pre-pandemia price and energy pre-crisis, the cost of the gas bill is, therefore, increased by 56.9%.
– Photo press office Confcommercio –
(ITALPRESS).
