PN Energy spokesman Ryan Callus said the party was not against hedging gas prices but against bogus deals, like the one with SOCAR.

In 2015, the Auditor General discovered loopholes in the hedging agreement with Azerbaijani state-owned oil company SOCAR and that millions of losses were suffered by Enemalta as a result.

The recent surges in energy prices have made the hedging agreement more favorable to the state, however, but the five-year agreement expires next April.

At an energy press conference, Callus reiterated that a PN government will reimburse consumers for amounts they have been overcharged on their utility bills. “PN has been fighting the theft of water and electricity bills since 2018. We observed that around 80% of bills were overbilled and with PN leader Bernard Grech, we defined our strategy for the next 30 years.

Callus said the budget move to change the way energy bills are calculated validates what the PN has always said, but does not reimburse consumers who have been overcharged.

He said a PN government would reimburse consumers some 50 million euros.

Referring to Konrad Mizzi’s refusal to testify on the Electrogas project during the PAC sessions, Callus said: he is still part of the club. ”

PN chief spokesperson Peter Agius said: “I dream of a day when electricity prices will not remain a major issue in every election. They have recently become a nightmare, with electricity prices steadily rising.

PN candidate Mark Anthony Sammut mentioned PN’s proposals for the energy sector, which include increased subsidies for energy efficient devices like heat pumps and home batteries, an investment in the power grid. distribution, better feed-in tariff subsidies for photovoltaic cells, solar rights, favorable tariffs for electric cars and more charging stations, a serious attempt for a hydrogen pipeline, the second interconnection and an offshore wind farm floating.

Sammut also criticized the Enemalta gas blanket deal. “A PN government would review all contracts the Labor government has tied for energy purchases. The hedging was a crazy idea, and now we know it happened so that millions could be channeled through 17 Black, with 5 million euros stolen every day by Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, ”Sammut said.