Money on the floor: 50K households join electricity reform

In the second month since it was launched, 48,067 households and businesses joined the electricity reform of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and the Nega company, and switched to a private electricity supplier. This is a record number of people joining in one month, after about 31,000 joined in the previous month. The goal of the Ministry of Energy and the Nega company, which was 100,000 customers to switch by the end of the year, may be crossed as early as next month.

Joining the reform is expected to save each household hundreds and even thousands of shekels per year depending on the offers of the suppliers, the nature of use and the hours of electricity consumption. The Nega company, which led the reform together with the Ministry of Energy and is responsible for managing the electricity sector in Israel, today reveals the data of the transitions between the companies.

Energy Minister Eli Cohen: "In the coming year, more than a million Israelis are expected to benefit from a discounted electricity bill. This is the biggest reform in the economy since the cell phone reform that will save hundreds and thousands of shekels per year for every family. We are breaking the monopoly of the electric company, and opening the electricity market to competition. I also passed to a private provider, and I call on all citizens of Israel: compare, move and save."

According to the data, in the second month since the reform began, a new record of entrants was recorded: 48,067 households and businesses joined the reform in one month and switched from the electricity company to a private electricity supplier. 15,667 of them have a basic home meter, 30,904 have a smart home meter, and 1,496 have a smart business meter.

Recall that in the first month 31,373 customers switched to a private provider, a number that was also higher than the expectations of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and the Nega company. A total of 79,440 households and businesses have joined the reform so far. This is an increase of more than 150% in the number of households that switched to a private provider compared to the number of households that switched during the last 3 years (from September 21 to the end of June 24) which was approximately 50,000 with smart meters.

Benga and the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure have set a target of 100,000 households that will switch from the electricity company to private companies by the end of the year, and it is now estimated that the target may be crossed as early as next month, and that the number by the end of the year will be significantly higher than the initial target.

Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen: "I would like to thank the Nega company, the CEO Shaul Goldstein and the chairman of the board of directors Sami Turgeman, who worked a lot for its success. We are breaking the monopoly of the electric company, opening up the electricity sector to competition and returning to the citizens at least 2 billion NIS. I congratulate the 80,000 customers who took the right step, joined the electricity reform and decided to save up to thousands of shekels a year."

Shaul Goldstein, CEO of Nega: "The success of the electricity reform devised by Minister Eli Cohen surprised us as well, but thanks to the dedicated work of Nega employees, we prepared all the trade and computer systems to receive these large numbers, and for him it was a great success without any problems. I call on consumers to join the reform and save electricity in a more efficient way by switching to consumption from the evening to the night or to the morning. The Nega company is making great efforts to optimize the electricity sector according to the directive of the minister, for the well-being of consumers and to reduce emissions for the benefit of the environment."