To this has just been added a strong climate of insecurity due to the Ukrainian crisis and the current and future consequences on the price of gas, among others.
In September 2021, Cherpas experts published a report which demonstrated that opting for the peak/off-peak tariff rather than the basic tariff was not as advantageous an alternative as it would seem to save money. Far from being as profitable as hoped, when nearly 50% of French people subscribe to this type of offer for their electricity, it would even cause many households to lose money rather than the reverse.
Taking into account the +4% increase in the TRV (Regulated Electricity Tariff) since last February 1, Cherpas has updated its analysis data for the start of the year, in order to see if the confrontation between the tariff basic rate VS the peak/off-peak rate was always relevant.
In this context of soaring prices and despite the application of the "tariff shield", the startup has noted that this recent increase in the TRV has completely changed the situation, because even if it is limited to 4% on average, it hides reality of very disparate price changes.
Thus, according to its simulations, the Cherpas platform found that:
- For the basic tariff, the TRV suffered an average increase of +11,6%.
- For the off-peak tariff, the TRV increases significantly by +8% while that at peak hours only undergoes a limited increase of +1%.
Who are the most affected by this increase in the TRV?
Far from putting everyone on an equal footing, this 4% increase in the regulated electricity tariff mainly affects the most modest households but also the most eco-responsible households in their consumption. Effectively, electricity during peak hours is more "coal" because it uses gas and coal power plants, while electricity during off-peak hours uses nuclear energy. As indicated by the Syndicat de gestion des energies de la region lyonnaise (Sigerly), “limiting high power demands on the electricity network in winter limits the production of electricity from fossil fuels”.
In other words:
- Of the 11 million households concerned by the basic tariffs, 95% have an energy consumption equal to or less than 9kVA and this concerns the vast majority of modest households. For these consumers, the increase in the TRV since February 1, 2022 has reached 11,6%.
- At the same time, households with a share of off-peak hours in their subscription greater than 70% experience an increase 2.6 times greater than those with a share of off-peak hours less than 30%.
Cherpas, the tool that analyzes your contracts for free and offers you the best offer
Faced with these major changes, the consumer is legitimately lost. How do you know if you are paying the right price? Who to believe? Alone in the face of difficult to read general conditions and complex calculations, it is difficult to obtain a clear answer. All the more so in this unstable geopolitical period which makes us fear the worst for the economy and in particular for the price of gas. It is here that the Cherpas platform intervenes by enlightening the consumer in the face of the opacity of the evolution of pricing policies.
While many consumers are still unaware of it, it is quite possible to change energy supplier at any time, free of charge and without interruption, to benefit from more attractive offers. The Cherpas web application allows you to analyze your domestic subscriptions in no time: electricity and gas, internet and mobile. A tedious task, on which many consumers are reluctant to look.
Thanks to an algorithm constantly monitoring market trends, Cherpas very quickly offers less expensive offers that are more suited to the daily consumption of a household. The company is remunerated via the commissions offered by certain suppliers, but by highlighting all the offers on the market without valuing some in relation to others. This is for the sake of transparency and ethics.
Thanks to Cherpas, its members have saved an average of €219 per year for a household heated by electrical energy. With sustained growth, the web application now has more than 14 active users (000 last September) and currently oversees more than 3 contracts.