The price of energy paid by final consumers cannot be low and at the same time cover the necessary investments in the energy sector, and the difference is at the level of a pack of cigarettes, said Bogdan Badea, general manager of Hidroelectrica.

“The free market is the only one that can give a fair price to the consumer and vet the price that we need to make investments. Do not think that we can have a very low price for energy and we can also make investments. We must have a fair price to ensure both. Because, if you look at your bill, if each of us looks at his home, 10% of the energy bill may in percentage seem like a lot, but in reality … I’m not a smoker, but I always give as an example, a pack of cigarettes, but the pack of cigarettes is more expensive,” Badea claimed.

He explained that new investment projects can be financed partly by the tariffs paid by consumers and partly by grants provided by the European Commission.

“If this is the price we have to pay in the future for our children to have clean energy, to live in a cleaner environment, I am very willing to pay it. And more than that. But we also need a a little courage in saying things by name: if we want investment, it must be supported by a fair tariff and financing mechanisms, before we think of all kinds of financing schemes, such as feed-in tariff, contracts for difference, green certificates, we have to access European grants,” the Hidroelectrica official said at the Focus Energetic conference, according to Agerpres.

Badea also said that he expects the market to be much more aggressive with liberalization from January 2021, and Hidroelectrica is preparing to be a very serious competitor in the supply to final consumers segment.