Romanian state will compensate the electricity bills for approximately 13 million Romanians who have a monthly consumption between 30 kWh and 200 kWh, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, stated on Wednesday in a briefing at the end of the Government meeting.
“I presented today in the Government in first reading the draft emergency ordinance for compensating the Romanians’ electricity and gas bills,” he said, according to Agerpres.
For electricity, the difference between the lowest market price, 64 bani per kWh with all taxes included, and the average, 82 bani per kWh will be compensated.
“We started from the idea that in the competitive market we have a minimum offer, a minimum reference price, offered by a company, which is lower than the regulated price on December 31, 2020. So we are talking about a competitive price lower than the regulated price at end of the regulatory period. We have a minimum starting base and we have an average market price that is around 82 bani per kWh, with all taxes included (…) We have two references, the minimum reference, the lowest price from the competitive market, which is 64 bani and the average price from the competitive market, which is 82. This difference of 18 bani per kWh to consumers will be subsidized entirely by the state, from the state budget. (…) By this measure almost 13 million Romanians will benefit “, said Popescu.
He stressed that those who fall under the Law on Vulnerable Consumers will not benefit from this measure.
“For gas, we took a reference price of 255 lei per kWh, more than double that of last year. Up to an annual consumption of 1,200 cubic meters, all types of homes will benefit from a grant of 25% of the value the bill, “he added. Suppliers will invoice these discounts.
Popescu also said that the Executive plans to compensate the bills for SMEs as well.
“I met today (Wednesday) with the representatives of the National Council for Small and Medium Enterprises to discuss a scheme and for SMEs. I asked the suppliers’ associations to come up with their consumption profile. I wish that from November we will have a household compensation scheme and an SME scheme. There is already a support scheme for large consumers,” he said.
At the same time, Popescu also stated that he is not a supporter of capping prices, after, previously, in the same conference, Prime Minister Florin Cîţu said that this option is also taken into account.
“Price capping means discouraging investors from coming to Romania to produce energy and extract gas, I personally am not a fan of capping. What we want to do (bill clearing ) is just like capping. I do not agree with those with high and very high incomes to benefit from capping,” the Minister of Energy stressed.
He claimed that the energy market is ready for winter, and Romania will not run out of gas, as was recently circulated in the public space.
“In Romania the energy market is robust. I heard that we will run out of gas, I definitely disapprove on something like that. I heard that there are no stocks, but we have the storage capacity of 70% of the maximum capacity, last year it was the same, when we had the deposits at the maximum capacity left with more than a third in the ground. The storage costs, so we have to be very careful,” Popescu pointed out.