ANRE has developed and will develop new regulations so that competition, transparency and non-discrimination will be considered in the field of electricity and gas, said Dumitru Chiriţă, President of the National Regulatory Authority for Energy – ANRE, within the Energy Strategy Summit, an event organized by energynomics.ro.
“We have tried, for the monopoly activities, to adopt regulations, for the current regulatory period that began in 2019, I refer to transmission and distribution activities for electricity and natural gas, to be based on tariffs that are as much stable, non-fluctuating, to no longer influence the market and prices for the final consumer and, at the same time, to be based on justified costs and to consider sustainable development,” Chiriţă said.
The adopted regulations envisage that the development of electricity and gas distribution and transmission networks be based on an amount that is not less than that resulting from unamortized value. Which means that for the current regulatory period, that amount is of over 1 billion lei for electricity, more than if the non-amortized value had been taken into account.
In order to monitor investments in electricity transmission and distribution networks, two specialized departments have been set up to intervene when investments are not made. “Fortunately, the operators have all understood to embark on this path, and in the end we hope to win, especially the consumer.”
ANRE and the government will make an inventory of production capacities. On site of the national dispatcher appear installed capacity of 24,000 MW. “Unfortunately, the available one does not exceed 14,000 MW. There are a lot of MWs that need to be removed from license, and from here on we can see what capacities can be developed and where,” Chiriţă said.
In order to stimulate new investments in production capacities, ANRE has submitted to Parliament a proposal on the basis of which the interested parties to invest to be able to trade electricity from the time of issuance of an ATR (technical connection approval).
“This measure makes it easier to access the funding needed for these capacities.”
Gas liberalization came at an inappropriate moment
The moment of April 1, 2017, when it was decided to liberalize natural gas, was inappropriate, says Chiriţă.
“Romania did not adopt a network code, there were no trading regulations based on competition, transparency and non-discrimination, and we were basically in the situation where the two producers in Romania, together with the import, made a competition for price increase, and in no case a competition for the benefit of the end-user and the sector. At the end of last year we were able to adopt the network code so that all market participants could trade gas competitively and on non-discriminatory basis. ”
Gas storage needs to grow by 3 billion cubic meters
Two orders were issued that left only non-household consumers in the free market, only the CET area and households were kept in the regulated area.
“We are in a situation where we have the next day market, the market and the balancing market – which is the responsibility of Transgaz. But all these regulations are not enough to have a functioning market. For things to be completed in optimal conditions, I believe that the gas storage capacity has to be increased by at least 3 billion cubic meters.”
This will ensure both optimal market operation and gas supply in winter.
ANRE is open to dialogue
“I want to assure you that we will be available for dialogue with all interested operators in what it means to issue regulations and, together with the government and the parliament, to correct the legislation so as to create conditions for the sectors that you represent,” Chiriţă concluded, speaking in front of more than 120 people from the energy sector attending the 2019 Energy Strategy Summit.
