Energy consumers will be helped from the state budget from April 1, but from next year they should reduce their own bills through energy efficiency measures, said on Thursday Zoltan Nagy-Bege, vice president of the National Regulatory Authority in Energy (ANRE), in a conference.

“I am convinced that this energy crisis will increase the concern and investment in energy efficiency. The high price will make consumers think of energy efficiency measures, but there must also come from the state institutions a concern and an effort to inform and increase awareness on the importance of this measure, at the level of all consumers, from domestic to the largest non-domestic consumer.

”We can’t even imagine how much waste there is right now. I have also been criticized for claiming that energy was too cheap to be of concern to certain categories of consumers for efficiency measures. Here we are at a time when the price increases 2-3 times in less than a year and it is possible that energy efficiency will take on a completely different dimension,” said Bege, at the conference “Energy, present and future”, organized by the Romanian Association of Energy Suppliers.

Only by changing certain behaviors, by eliminating this waste, can we already get some consumption savings on bills, because any reduction in consumption will be reflected in the bill, in CO2 emissions, reduced dependence on imports and prices, if demand decreases, he pointed out.

Regarding the measures from April 1, the ANRE official specified that a final decision is outlined, but there are still small issues to be discussed at the level of the Executive.

“I think the government will make a decision this week. I will not give details, because it is not my job to announce anything, but going beyond that, we need to quickly find solutions that will have medium or long term effects, through which we solve the problem of dependence on gas and energy imports, and in doing so we can help reduce Europe’s dependence on energy imports. Let’s come up with investments, not just in generation,” Bege said, according to Agerpres.

Romania aims to build at least 6.9 GW of renewable energy by 2030, but in his opinion, with a well-thought-out legislative framework, we can reach 10-12 GW of new renewable capacity before that term.

“I think that energy efficiency investments should be stimulated as well. The market, domestic and non-household consumers, stimulated by rising prices, will go in this direction, I think it is necessary to stimulate these investments from budgetary sources as well. It’s the same story as ‘we give fish to the masses or teach them to fish’,” concluded the ANRE representative.