Household electricity consumption fell by more than 18% in the first two months of the year, suggesting that people have realized that this is the best thing they can do to control their bills.

Romanians have made these savings on their own initiative, as there is no nationwide campaign by the authorities to educate people about this. In addition, government energy efficiency programs are being halted or delayed for years.

Electricity consumption by the population decreased by 18% in the first two months of the year, according to the data of the National Institute of Statistics. Practically, on average, every Romanian saved a fifth of the consumed electricity.

That’s a pretty big decrease (it’s never been in double digits, it’s usually plus/minus 2-3% year-over-year), which suggests that people have started to save enough energy to realize that this is the best answer to high energy prices.

Especially since we, as a people, have a special attitude towards energy consumption. Having rationed energy during the communist period, in the years after the revolution we took revenge by using it abundantly, even wasting it. Many of us years ago would come home and turn on all the lights in the house without turning them off when we moved from one room to another.

Well, we could do that as long as energy was cheap. And so it was, because until recently (January 1, 2021) the energy market was regulated by the state, and the political class often used the price of energy carriers as an electoral tool.

However, the liberalization of our market coincided with an unprecedented increase in energy prices worldwide. Governments, including our own, have intervened with schemes to cap the final price paid by the public.

How can we reduce consumption?

One of the easiest ways to reduce consumption is to be aware that we need to do so, meaning being careful when we turn on light bulbs and turn them off when we no longer need them, such as when we leave a room.

Another way is to make our consumption more efficient. That is, to use economical lamps and equipment of the highest energy consumption class, A or A+, to make the most of natural lighting, to insulate our home in order to have the greatest possible balance between winter and summer temperatures.

Over the past two years, since energy prices began to rise rapidly, government bodies have analyzed all kinds of solutions to limit the price, but at the same time, no clear plan of measures to improve consumption efficiency has been developed. national level.

In Minekology, there were attempts to launch a Rabla program for light bulbs, where people would receive economical light bulbs instead of classic ones. After announcing it, the authorities concluded that it would be too difficult to implement, as too many people might demand to replace the lamps. Therefore, the program was put into standby mode.

People no longer trust

Another program initiated by the Environment Fund Administration (AFM) is the “Energy-efficient house”, where beneficiaries are paid 60% (maximum 70,000 lei) of the cost of investments in energy-efficient house works. But even here things are extremely difficult.

Simona B., one of the participants of the program, told Hotnews.ro that it took three years from the submission of the project to its signing, and one of the biggest problems is that AFM staff do not respond to requests for clarification. situation.

“I submitted the project in September 2020, immediately after the launch of the program. A year and two months later, in November 2021, the result of the file analysis was published on the AFM website, which was rejected (discrepancy between the energy audit report and the funding request). I filed an appeal in November 2021, the appeal was accepted, and the result was announced in April 2022,” she says.

Simone then asked AFM when she was going to sign the contract. Two months later, in June, he received a reply to his e-mail stating that the contract was currently under development and should be sent to him for signature.

“From June to October, we sent e-mails, called the AFM, asked for clarification on allowable costs, asked about the contract, nothing was answered. In October, we requested an audience with the AFM president and only after this request did we receive a contract by email to be signed at the end of October 2022. We submitted the signed contract to the AFM at the beginning of November 2022, and we should have received it signed by the AFM, with the date and registration number, since the deadline for the completion of the works depends on the date of signing the contract,” she said.

After more phone calls and emails, Simone finally received a signed contract with a registration number in March 2023. “We don’t even want to think about how long it will be before we get the money after applying for funding,” she says.

All these delays and neglect by the authorities lead to the erosion of the trust of the people, who eventually become complacent and stop applying for such government programs.

Danger of violation for Romania

In addition, energy efficiency is a country issue that could involve us in a new infringement procedure from the European Commission.

After we had problems in the past in meeting the energy efficiency targets set before the European Commission, earlier this year the Community executive put Romania on notice again. The commission asked our country to submit a full report on the achievement of energy efficiency goals for 2020.

Those who advised people to save were punished

During this period of high energy prices, I have not seen in Romania a nationally supported government campaign to educate people about energy conservation, no TV, online or radio spots, no postcards in mailboxes, no re-statements that it gets into people’s heads.

Moreover, in the past, when some industry leaders or experts made such appeals to the public in public statements, they received severe political and public recriminations.

We remember the president of ANRE, Petra Lifitsiou, who was dismissed from this position in 2012 after the following statement: “Increasing (the bill – no) by 5% at the end of the month means nothing. It means not forgetting the light bulb in the bathroom when we go to work,” she said at the time, classified as arrogant.

Even Eric Stubb, CEO of Engie Romania, did not escape criticism when he said two years ago: “If Romanians lowered the temperature in their homes from 23 to 21 degrees in winter, they would save 15% of energy.”

An attempt to raise awareness of the benefits of energy efficiency was also made by the former vice-president of ANRE, Zoltan Nagy-Bege.

“I’ve already said it, but I’m repeating it because it has to enter our subconscious. I believe that in Romania the most important obstacle to improving energy efficiency is the price of energy itself, which is very, very low in Romania, so Romanians are not incentivized to take energy efficiency measures. No matter how cheap energy is, it is still more expensive than the cheapest, that is, unconsumed energy,” he said in 2019.

Nagy emphasized that it is necessary to take measures to increase the awareness of consumers and prepare them for the period when prices will no longer be regulated by the state, which is only a matter of time.

Another voice that has recently called attention to this is Bohdan Chiritsaou, the president of the Competition Council.

“These high prices will not disappear anywhere. We will have to learn to live with high energy prices,” Chiritsou said two years ago.

“We, Romania, cannot influence the price on the European market, but we can take measures to reduce the negative impact of this price increase. When it rains, you can’t stop it, but you can open an umbrella,” he added.

Chiritsa was summoned to the Economic Commission in the Senate to provide explanations regarding this statement.

Photo source: Dreamstime.com