USR warns that the measure of mounting an additional meter at prosumers is not imposed by European legislation, just as the sun tax was not, and it will involve higher costs for all Romanians. USR deputy Cristina Prună requests ANRE to publicly clarify whether it is preparing to abandon the quantitative compensation of energy produced and consumed by prosumers, which would bury the prosumer sector, one of the few components of the Romanian energy sector that has performed in recent years.

“ANRE decided to install an additional meter at prosumers to measure the amount consumed by them from their own production. This despite the fact that the existing legal requirement regarding the introduction of smart metering for all consumers in Romania has not yet been met. Our fear is that, through this step, the abandonment of the quantitative compensation of prosumers is actually being prepared, which would be extremely toxic, not only for prosumers, but for the entire Romanian energy system and, from here, for all of us,” says Cristina Prună, vice-president of the Commission for Industries and Services in the Chamber of Deputies.

ANRE justifies the new measure by transposing Directive (EU) 2019/944 on the rules for the internal electricity market, but the provisions of the directive do not refer to the obligation to introduce a second meter in the case of prosumers. This obligation introduced in Romania by ANRE strictly represents an excessive interpretation of the European normative framework.

“As with the sun tax, the new obligation is in no way imposed by European law. This brings added cost that we will all pay in distribution rates and added red tape and unpredictability for prosumers. Unfortunately, instead of coming up with solutions for storage, for optimizing the operation of networks, ANRE is still looking for ways to put sticks in the wheels of prosumers. This is actually the problem, no one will gain from this measure, only some guys who will fill their pockets again from the installation of these additional meters. It is not understood that this sector must continue to be supported and that there must be legislative predictability, instead of the governors starting to block everything that goes in this country,” adds deputy Cristina Prună.