Electricity prices going up by 26% as of January 1st, amidst completely liberalised market

 

As of January 1st, the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) will no longer establish prices for home consumers, as these will be calculated by the traditional supplier and they will be named universal service prices. Consumers will either keep their current contracts, at universal prices, which will go up by 13-26%, or they will sign other contracts within the free market.

 

According to the calculations done by AEI, based on the price comparison on ANRE's website, the biggest price hikes will be for households of Enel Distribution Banat, namely 26%. Following that is Enel Distribution Muntenia (Bucharest included), where electricity price will go up by 23%, Enel Distribution Dobrogea, with price surges of 18%, Electrica Transilvania South and CEZ Distribution, with 17% each.

 

For the customers of Electrica Muntenia North, prices will go up by 15%, and for Electrica Transilvania North, by 14%, and E.ON Distribution, by 13%.

 

In the opinion of AEI, the guilty party for this situation is ANRE, which did not inform consumers that the price is about to be liberalised, neither did they prepare the optimum prices regarding secondary legislation.

 

"Thus, we notice that through the practice of ANRE, they are breaking the requirements of article 55 of Law 123/2012, prices that household consumers are obligated to pay for electricity as of January 1st 2021 are unreasonable, prices that are much larger than market prices", AEI representatives say.

 

"We appreciate the liberalisation of electricity and natural gas markets should not be actions taken just to add to the check-list as being done, with a disregard for Romanians", AEI experts say.