A return to the regulated power and gas market is very complicated and dangerous, because it would mean canceling the contracts that are now in progress, paying penalties to the European Union, freezing investments and increasing imports, said on Monday Dumitru Chisăliţă, president of the Association Intelligent Energy (AEI).

“It is impossible to regulate the gas and electricity market from April 1 because there are no more contract-free quantities, so you don’t have much to regulate. You could force things to cancel some contracts, which is very complicated and very dangerous,” he said, according to Agerpres.

At the same time, a regulation could lead to a series of negative effects such as the triggering of infringements by the European Commission, as a result of which Romania will pay penalties, as well as the freezing of investments.

“The regulation of the market will determine the increase of gas imports, against the background of the depletion of the existing deposits and of the increase of the consumption that is expected in Romania and as a result of the decrease of the investments that will be made in Romania. At the same time, low domestic gas prices mean high exports of natural gas. If we wanted to ban exports, we would end up with another infringement, another problem. In addition, energy efficiency projects will no longer be profitable, as no one will be interested in making their consumption more efficient and reducing their energy costs,” Chisăliţă also said.

In this context, the Intelligent Energy Association proposes several urgent measures to reduce prices: the regulation for 12 months of the monthly profit margin at the level of energy suppliers and producers, which will reduce the purchase and sale prices of natural gas, both for ongoing contracts, as well as for new contracts concluded; elimination of VAT and excise duties for 12 months, which will reduce natural gas sales prices, both for ongoing contracts and for new contracts; the suspension of the Gas Release Program and its rethinking in the form of Best Practices, mandatory to be carried out at the level of each producer in order to increase the liquidity of the Romanian market – will eliminate a false gas deficit in the market and will contribute to reducing purchase prices.

In addition, the scope of the law on vulnerable consumers should be increased so that more people are protected.

Supplier checks are also needed to prevent and detect abusive market measures that some of them practice in relation to consumers.

At the same time, measures must be taken to ensure the functioning of the energy market: imposing a new progressive model of taxation on suppliers and producers’ surplus profits, but with the sole purpose of reducing the price level and not collecting money to the state budget; the obligation to indicate the commercial margin practiced by the suppliers in contracts and on invoices.

It is also necessary to apply the model for the flattening of winter peak costs with the transfer of costs in the warm period.

ANRE and stockbrokers should publish weekly and monthly reports, published no later than the third day of the following week and the fifth day of the following month on average weekly/ monthly prices for the various types of energy products.

At the same time, measures are needed to stimulate the reduction of energy losses and increase energy efficiency for operators and consumers, but also to separate the trading activity from the supply one, in terms of shareholders, accounting and management.