There is a need for greater pressure exerted by the energy community on the MPs to accelerate the adoption of legislative measures to eliminate the effects of GEO 114/2018. At the conference organized by energy-center.ro, the representative of the regulator presented the next steps for Romania to comply with the European legislation and to remove the risk of financial sanctions being applied against Romania.
A sudden return to a liberalized market without instruments for protecting the vulnerable consumer would have produced more serious effects than those introduced by the price regulation, said Claudiu Dumbrăveanu, general director of the General Directorate of the Energy Market and Prices, within the National Authority for Energy. Energy regulation – ANRE. He announced that the Senate is already working on a law by which the amendments to the energy law and the operating law of ANRE as introduced by GEO 114/2018 will be eliminated. In addition, new changes will be introduced for Romania to comply with the Regulation on the electricity market, an act that will come into force from January 1, 2020.
“We are at the final hour and we must somehow force this new amendment of Law 123 to appear, implicitly a new approach to the regulations […]. If we do not change the legislation and comply with European directives until December 26, no one will believe that we are open to dialogue, ”insisted Claudiu Dumbrăveanu.
Senate Commission decided the stages of the re-liberalization of the power and gas markets
The price ceiling for gas will be eliminated in two stages, until March 31, 2021, 11 months earlier than provided by the legislation currently in force, and the supply of electricity to domestic consumers will be deregulated in three stages, until June 30, 2021, eight months before the deadline stipulated by the rules at the moment.
The decision belongs to the parliamentarians from the Senate Energy Commission, through amendments introduced in the report to a draft amending the Energy and Natural Gas Law. The project is now to be debated in the plenary of the superior chamber, also with amendments, according to profit.ro.
Thus, the capped gas price will be maintained for their entire consumption ratio until the end of March next year. Subsequently, between April 1, 2020 – March 31, 2021, the ceiling will only be applied for 50% of this consumption, and after that it will be completely eliminated.
On the electricity side, the regulated supply for the domestic consumers will continue until June 30, 2021. The term currently in force is February 28, 2022. Liberalization will be done here in stages. Thus, the present situation will remain unchanged until the end of the current year. Subsequently, the percentage of domestic consumption provided by the two big producers at regulated prices compared to the suppliers of last resort will decrease to 60% between January-June 2020, to 40% between July-December 2020 and to 20% during January- June 2021. After this date, the delivery obligation at regulated price will be eliminated.