Keeping electricity consumption under control and constantly monitoring it benefits electricity consumers.
According to the amended legislation at the end of 2022, the capped price of electricity no longer depends on the average monthly consumption achieved in 2021. From this year, the price will be calculated and applied to the monthly consumption. Thus, in tandem with the monitoring and optimization of consumption, the transmission of the self-read index facilitates the automatic inclusion in a consumption tranche with a lower price or can ensure continuity in the capped compensated consumption area. If in a month the electricity consumption is 120 kWh, then the applied price will be 0.8 lei/kWh. If the following month the consumption drops below 100 kWh, then the price applied by the supplier will be 0.68 lei/kWh, corresponding to the area of capped price in which the consumer has re-entered.
A number of solutions dedicated to energy efficiency are available on the websites of energy suppliers. Everyone can monitor their energy consumption and take steps to optimize it. In addition, providers may submit a consumption history upon request. Consumption profiling is useful to know in which periods high consumption values of electricity have been recorded and the consumer can figure out how to eliminate energy waste, if necessary.
Complete information about the index, about procedures and regulations related to meter reading and how consumption is billed can be found on the dedicated website www.autocitiri.ro.
From the fall of 2021, in Romania, the method of invoicing electricity has changed many times, following more than 20 legislative changes regarding the support schemes granted to different categories of consumers. This has generated a major concern among end consumers about how bills will evolve and how consumption is billed. At the end of 2022, 71% of consumers were more interested in reducing costs and energy consumption than a year ago, and 65% of those said their interest in monitoring energy consumption had increased in the past year, according to the EY report “Energy transition consumer insights”.
Almost all consumers are making lifestyle changes to reduce energy consumption, save money, time and protect the environment. Self-reading remains, in the long term, a simple gesture that brings multiple benefits from cost predictability to optimizing the bill by fitting into a lower consumption tranche, and automatically at a lower price.