Romania must make decisions now if it wants to give up Russian gas by 2027, in order to secure its supply, says Eric Stab, CEO, Engie – in fact one of the main conclusions of Foren 2022.
“If we want to give up Russian gas by 2027, we have to make decisions in the coming weeks,” said Eric Stab.
At the same time, the suppliers are under pressure to credit the clearing and capping system, as they have not received the money from the state, and the coverage from their own resources – either through equity funds from the parent company or from the banks – where the interest is quite high – is expensive enough to create serious cash flow problems.
The real definition of the vulnerable consumer is another priority line for Romania – shows the conclusions of most of those surveyed by Energynomics at Foren.
For now, the definition of the vulnerable consumer is poor. For example, if Engie has 2 million consumers, and according to Romanian legislation, only 40,000 are considered vulnerable, ie 2%, in France the percentage jumps to 25%.
Another problem – the balancing costs, very high in the case of Romania, lead to a decrease in the competitiveness of the wind sector. At the same time, energy efficiency measures must include supporting the switch to heat pumps and the abandonment of domestic gas boilers, in order to reduce gas consumption. And biomethane must be considered as an efficient solution for the energy transition, as Romania has enough organic waste.
“In all the countries where we are active, people are benefiting from the heat pumps, which they are adopting more and more now, with the increase in prices. This is not the case in Romania, where energy is still subsidized … We have seen, this winter, some energy companies abandoning their customers: all speculators have abandoned their customers. Therefore, a task (for the authorities) would be to ensure that all suppliers are serious,” commented Volker Raffel, CEO, E.On Romania.
“The capping and compensation scheme is far too generous – we subsidize everyone,” said E.On’s CEO, who believes a voucher system would be more appropriate.
At the same time, distribution tariffs are capped, which affects the quality and efficiency of supply. Distribution rates should increase and we need to access European funds, he added.
At the same time, for the final period of the compensation scheme, consumers and investors need clarity and should already know what will happen from April 1, 2023, added Volker Raffel – drawing one of the main conclusions of Foren 2022.
