Plan to limit revenues

The U.K. government plans to impose income limits on renewable energy companies to reduce the impact of higher energy prices on the country's residents, Bloomberg News Agency reported, citing sources.

According to the agency, representatives from Britain's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy held talks with major renewable energy suppliers Monday night. The department declined to give details, saying the government would continue to protect households from rising energy prices.

It is noted that the talks in Britain are following the pattern of a mechanism that has been proposed in the EU for setting a temporary revenue cap for companies that produce low-cost electricity.

It is reported that the British government has already negotiated with industry representatives on the upcoming winter against the background of the alleged energy crisis. At that time it was a question of supplying "green" producers of electricity at fixed rather than market prices. However, the talks collapsed amid fears that prices for most electricity were already insured until the end of the year.

The government and industry have been in talks for weeks to try to come up with a plan before winter. Initial proposals focused on moving low-carbon generators to sell electricity under long-term fixed-price contracts rather than at market prices. But discussions broke down over concerns about how much of the electricity had already been hedged before the end of the year.

It is worth noting that it was reported earlier that Truss' intention to freeze energy prices for residents could cost the country about 130 billion pounds over a year and a half. This is because in August the British energy regulator Ofgem announced an increase in the maximum allowable annual electricity bill for consumers to 3,549 pounds from October 1, which is more than a thousand pounds more than the price threshold proposed by Truss.

Monday's talks included a core group of some of the largest low-carbon generators in Britain, including the British units of RWE AG, Orsted A/S, Vattenfall AB and Electricite de France SA. Also participating are local companies SSE Plc, Drax Group Plc, Scottish Power Ltd. and Octopus Energy Ltd.