MILAN (Reuters) - Enel and Hera won more than half of the more than 4.5 million non-vulnerable domestic customers who remained in the greater electricity protection regime 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 went to A2A for about 300,000 customers (Cagliari, Naples municipality, Oristano, South Sardinia, Agrigento, Caltanissetta, Palermo and Trapani).

Two lots also went to Iren for 340,000 new customers (Brindisi, Matera, Potenza, Salerno, Taranto, Barletta-Andria-Trani, Campobasso, Cosenza, Foggia and Isernia)

Finally, E.On Energia was awarded one lot (Imperia, Lecco, Monza-Brianza and Savona) while Illumia was awarded three lots (Como, Turin municipality, Varese, Florence, Rome province, Naples province, Nuoro and Sassari)

All former greater protection 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 gradual protections service will last three years, from July 1, 2024 to March 31, 2027, and during this period the consumer will be able to freely choose, and at any time, a supplier on the free market," the statement adds.

Bids were well below the auction base, with the exception of Illumia and A2A Energia.

"The participation of operators in the competitive procedures was broad and the results very satisfactory in terms of prices, something that will benefit end consumers," commented Giuseppe Moles, CEO of Acquirente Unico.

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

A2A, Iren and Enel in particular skid on the stock market, down between 1.2 percent and 1.3 percent, while Hera is up slightly and Acea gives up 0.4 percent.

(Giancarlo Navach, editing Gianluca Semeraro)