Gas continues to rise and autumn has brought no respite. On November 3, Arera (the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment) communicated the value of the raw material of the Vulnerability Protection Service for the month of October. Spending by the typical user grows by 9.1% compared to September, and according to the Authority the cause is a new and sharp increase in wholesale prices.
“A historic record. Never has the price of gas, including taxes, been so high” underlines Marco Vignola, vice-president of the National Consumers Union.
How much does gas cost in October
For the approximately 2.3 million customers still served under protection, the raw material alone (the CMEM component) costs 88.36 euros per megawatt hour, when in September it stood at 78.80. Arera calculates it on the average monthly price on the Italian wholesale market, the PSV day ahead, and publishes it at the end of the month, within the first two working days of the following month. In practice, protected customers find out how much they paid for October gas when October is already over. The reference price for the typical customer, i.e. a family that consumes 1,100 cubic meters per year, thus rises to 176.80 euro cents per cubic meter.
Where does the bill money go?
More than half of the bill, 54.9%, pays for gas supply and related activities: 97.06 cents per cubic meter. 5.83 cents go to retail sales, while transport and meter management weigh 27.25 cents, 15.41% of the total. General system costs stop at 4.98 cents (2.82%). Then there is the tax, which alone takes 41.68 cents, 23.57%, therefore almost a quarter of the bill.
The estimates of the associations
According to calculations by the National Consumers Union, at constant prices the increase costs the typical family 163 euros more per year, so the expense for gas from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2027 would reach 1,945 euros. Codacons also estimates 163 euros more per household: according to the association, compared to October 2025, gas for the vulnerable costs 68% more. For Gabriele Melluso, president of Assoutenti, this is the sixth consecutive increase. And the next few months are worrying, because with the cold, families will use more gas. For electricity, the blow had already arrived at the end of September: +37.3% in the fourth quarter for vulnerable customers in Greater Protection. The next gas update, that of November, is expected in the first days of December. Until then, the November bill remains an unknown.
