The Romanian energy market needs recovery and a sustainable approach, while we need to find solutions for its normal and correct functioning, with long-term benefits for investments and for end customers, declared, on Wednesday, at a specialized conference, the president of the Romanian Energy Suppliers Association (AFEER), Laurențiu Urluescu.
“The last few years have been extremely challenging for the energy sector. Especially for electricity and natural gas suppliers, which play an essential role in the functioning of the market. All the changes and measures adopted have been directly reflected in our activity and on the development of the energy market in the long term. Starting with 2020, the health, economic, energy and geo-political crises have led the Romanian authorities to take exceptional measures. In the energy field, the measures aimed at capping/offsetting electricity and natural gas bills; these measures, which were at an unprecedented level in other EU countries, initiated in 2022 for a short period, were later extended until March 31, 2026 for natural gas, respectively June 30, 2025 for electricity. However, the subsidies established by law to help consumers were not fully paid by the state, but were largely borne by the suppliers, generating state debts of several billion lei to them (…) The Romanian energy market has need for recovery, long-term predictability and a sustainable approach,” said Urluescu, according to Agerpres.
The AFEER president claims that the compensation-cap amounts, related to 2024, were almost entirely borne by suppliers, “having had to go into debt with banks.”
“In the meantime, the responsible authorities only offer us assurances regarding the payment of these amounts, but they are delayed in materializing. Currently, the budget allocated for 2025 provides for only three billion lei, an insufficient amount to cover the arrears and continue the compensation scheme. That is why we express our concern regarding the budgetary allocation of the new support scheme provided for by GEO 6/2025 and request clarifications on the financing mechanism. Will this responsibility remain, once again, with the suppliers? Under these conditions, it is easy for state authorities to promise reduced prices and establish support schemes on the pockets of others (suppliers), without assuming certain payment terms and without a real consultation of the financial impact of this scheme. The current situation puts suppliers in a precarious financial position, forcing them to contract loans to cover operational costs. They must pay the invoices to producers, distributors, transporters in full, respectively to pay taxes to the state, including VAT and excise duties, while the state delays the reimbursement of the amounts owed, and, moreover, does not assume certain payment terms,” the representative of the energy suppliers in Romania said.
He also mentioned that, to date, the suppliers have paid interest of hundreds of millions of lei, most of them being over-indebted.
“Moreover, they record losses that they have no way of covering. According to the legislation, suppliers collect only a small part of the bill from customers, the rest having to be covered by the state. In return, they have to pay the entire bills to producers (for purchased electricity, for green certificates, the cogeneration bonus), pay the bills to energy and gas transporters and distributors, as well as taxes to the state (excise duties and VAT from consumer bills). We must specify that, when paying excise duties and VAT late, the state charges late fees and penalties; while on the other side there are numerous delays. We must recognize that any transition to deregulation will involve an impact, but we consider it essential that it be managed so that the impact is minimized,” added Laurențiu Urluescu.
The Association of Electricity Suppliers of Romania (AFEER) organized, on Wednesday, the 9th edition of the Annual Conference, with the theme “Re-liberalization: Competition on the energy market for the benefit of all”.