In the heating season, which starts in mid-October, the reduced overhead rates of the residential district heating service will not change either, the Ministry of Energy (EM) announced on Friday.

Hungary is adequately prepared to safely serve the energy demands that increase in the colder months, thanks to overhead protection, households have been paying the lowest electricity and gas prices in Europe for a long time. Uninterrupted supply is also guaranteed by the outstanding amount of already stored gas stock, the ministry's statement pointed out.

In the interest of Hungarian families, the government maintains the reduction in utility costs up to the average consumption, despite constant attacks from Brussels and the left during the war.

Overhead protection works: domestic residential users have access to the cheapest electricity and natural gas in Europe on a long-term basis. Compared to Hungarian average prices, the Swedes are billed ten times more for natural gas, the Dutch and the Irish six times more, and the Irish are billed five times more for electricity, and the Czechs and Germans are billed four times more. In the last utility year, 79 percent of consumption places in the electricity supply and 86 percent in the gas supply remained below the protected band limit.

In the heating season, which officially begins on October 15, the utility reduction will also help families in the usual, tried-and-true form since last August. The Ministry of Energy recently unified the net gas prices at the national level, which it brought down to the lowest level.

Thanks to the move, the utility-protected natural gas prices to be paid up to average consumption have even decreased slightly in the majority of the distribution areas. The prices for households with district heating will not change, while institutional users will be able to pay a quarter of the prices at the end of last year from October.

The government transfers HUF 202 billion from the General Protection Fund to the Ministry of Energy. From this amount, the ministry will reimburse the costs of the fourth quarter overhead protection service for the universal natural gas provider.

Similar reallocation preserves the positive balance of the district heating fund, covering the financing of district heating providers with HUF 53 billion in the last three months of the year. The Overhead Protection Fund planned for next year's budget serves to further maintain the overhead reduction in 2024 as well.

The Ministry of Energy's announcement reveals that the security of supply in the winter months is guaranteed by the significant gas reserves of 6.3 billion cubic meters. Hungary thus keeps pace with the EU member states' average storage capacity of 97 percent.

However, in terms of consumption ratio data, the Hungarian indicator, which is almost two-thirds higher than the European average, is much better.

The available quantity exceeds the level of all domestic consumption of the previous heating season. The available stock accounts for about 160 percent of the total residential use of 2021, the year before the international energy crisis. Deliveries according to long-term contracts are continuous, and domestic production helps to meet current needs.

Thanks to the government measures, Hungary is thus prepared for the start of the heating season. The supply risks associated with last year do not threaten domestic consumers even in the case of colder weather than the previous winter and harsher minuses. Hungarian families can keep their homes warm at reduced utility prices in the coming months as well, stressed the Ministry of Economy.

MTI