Nearly half (40%) of the country’s electricity customers and 30% of natural gas consumers are already in the open market, said Zoltan Nagy-Bege, vice president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE).

“The gas market was liberalized on July 1, 2020 and since then over 600,000 customers have entered the competitive market, so we have reached 1.2 million customers in the competitive market of almost 4 million – 3.95 million, which means a 30% share,” the official said, according to Agerpres.

These are the dates from the end of February.

On average, 50,000 to 60,000 customers enter the competitive market every month, he added.

“In terms of electricity, out of the more than 8.9 million household customers, after September 30 – the month when the order appeared that obliges suppliers to notify customers of market liberalization – more than 630,000 consumers entered the competitive market. Of that, more than 490,000 signed a competitive contract in 2021. So it can be seen that after January 1 this process has accelerated and we have now reached a share of 40% of customers in the free market, or over 3.5 million,” he said.

Statistics show that most consumers are satisfied with their current supplier.

“Interestingly, of these 630,000 customers that entered the competitive market after October 1, 2020, more than 540,000 remained with the same supplier with whom they had a contract, did not opt for another supplier, which confirms the polls seen in the press that show that although these customers have been informed of their options, they are not necessarily thinking of changing supplier. They are willing to sign new contracts competitively, but most of them seem to be happy with their supplier with whom they have had a contract for years,” also said Nagy-Bege.

According to him, ANRE is preparing to amend the supply regulations in order to have a very clear rule of the way invoices are issued in the months when the meters are not read.