On Tuesday, Greece announced the doubling of power subsidies for households and businesses in September, as the price of electricity has skyrocketed.

Wholesale electricity price reached 549 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) on Monday and is due to rise to 616.38 euros on Tuesday.

At a press conference in Athens, Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas said that state subsidies for household electricity bills in September will reach a record 0.639 euros per KWh, amounting to 1.9 billion euros in total.

The state subsidy will be deducted from the nominal power bills announced by power providers in recent days, drastically reducing the final price paid by households and businesses.

For example, the price of 78.8-80 cents per KWh announced by the Public Power Corporation for September will drop to 14.9-16.1 cents per KWh once the subsidy is deducted. The same is true for other providers who have announced charges equal to or greater than 0.69 euros per KWh.

For those eligible for the Social Residential Tariff rates, the subsidy will reach 67.7 cents per KWh while the subsidy for enterprises will range from 60.4 cents per KWh for connections up to 35 kVA, 34.2 cents for other commercial and industrial connections, and 63.9 cents for agricultural concerns.

Subsidies will absorb at least 89 percent of the increase in power price

Subsidies will absorb 89 percent or more of the increase in rates, the minister said.

“Simply reading the numbers shows the great effort being made by the government, which is exhausting all fiscal margins in order to contain the cost of energy and protect the income of citizens against an energy crisis of unprecedented size and unknown duration that affects all of Europe,” Skrekas said.

“The ongoing war [in Ukraine] is dramatically worsening the energy crisis,” Skrekas added.

Athens has spent about 8 billion euros in power subsidies and other measures since last September to help households, businesses and farmers pay their electricity and gas bills.