MILAN (Reuters) - Enel and Hera won more than half of the approximately 4.5 million non-vulnerable domestic customers who remained in the system of greater electricity protection following the complete liberalization of the sector decided by the government, with the supplier's winning price well below the auction base.

Seven lots totaling about 1.5 million customers went to Enel. These were Aosta, Biella, Milan province, Verbania, Vercelli, Parma, Piacenza, Turin province, Brescia, Milan municipality, Belluno, Gorizia, Pordenone, Treviso, Trieste, Bolzano, Trento, Vicenza, Mantova, Modena, Reggio-Emilia, Verona and Rome municipality.

Hera was also awarded seven lots with more than one million new customers: the municipalities of Cremona, Genoa, La Spezia, Lodi, Lucca, Massa-Carrara, Alessandria, Asti, Cuneo, Novara, Pavia, Bergamo, Sondrio, Udine, Ancona, Padua, Pesaro-Urbino, Venice, Ascoli Piceno, Bologna, Fermo, Ferrara, Macerata, Rovigo, Arezzo, Caserta, Perugia, Rieti, Terni, Viterbo, Chieti, Forlì-Cesena, L'Aquila, Pescara, Ravenna, Rimini and Teramo.

It is followed by Edison with four lots (Avellino, Benevento, Grosseto, Livorno, Pisa, Pistoia, Prato, Siena, Bari, Frosinone, Latina, Catanzaro, Crotone, Lecce, Reggio Calabria, Vibo Valentia, Catania, Enna, Messina, Ragusa and Syracuse).

In a note, the Edf-owned company says this is a customer base of 700,000 in the central and southern territories.

Two lots to A2A (Cagliari, Naples municipality, Oristano, South Sardinia, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Palermo and Trapani).

Finally, one lot went to E.On energia (Imperia, Lecco, Monza-Brianza and Savona) while Illumia was awarded two lots (Como, Turin municipality, Varese, Florence and Rome province).

A total of about 4.5 million users will be affected by the change of supplier "which will take place automatically and without any interruption in the supply," the single buyer's note stressed.

"The graduated protections service will last for three years, from July 1, 2024 to March 31, 2027, and during this period consumers will be able to freely choose a supplier on the free market at any time," the statement adds.

Finally, the bids were well below the auction base, with the exception of those of Illumia and A2A Energia.

A note from Arera went on to clarify that the 26 homogeneous areas were assigned to seven operators with a single price applied throughout Italy: "by way of example and not definitive, based on currently available data regarding the number of customers involved, and not on the actual data as of June 2024, the gamma parameter would be equal to -73 euros/pod/year."

On the stock market, A2A, Iren and Enel in particular are skidding, down between 1.4 and 1.5 percent, while Hera is little moved and Acea is weak.

(Giancarlo Navach, editing Gianluca Semeraro)