There are at least one million vulnerable energy and gas consumers in Romania, if not millions, and their definition can be achieved by the end of the year, said Zoltan Nagy-Bege, vice president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), on Monday.

“We no longer have to provide general aid regardless of whether those consumers need it or not, but these aids to be targeted at consumers that really need it, which is done by correctly defining vulnerable consumers. (…) The number of vulnerable consumers could be in the region of millions or at least a million. Unfortunately, we see that these troubled times do not help to speed up the problem,” said Bege, quoted by Agerpres.

He stated that the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Finance are the institutions empowered to solve the problem of vulnerable consumers, and, since the last discussions with the Ministry of Energy, the plan was to have their definition carried out by the end of October – early November, with the possibility of implementing the measures within one year. “We do not have to invent the wheel, there are models established in other states regarding the vulnerable consumer,” continued Bege.

ANRE official recalled the study conducted by Emerton, at the request of oil and gas producers, which proposes two definitions of vulnerable consumers that can be applied in Romania.