Electricity and gas bills paid by Romanians are currently capped and subsidized from the state budget through a law that allows it to do so until spring 2025. However, since the authorities are preparing to take measures to reduce the budget deficit, the idea of ​​giving up these subsidies also appeared.

Hotnews took a look at which companies have open markets in September, and the news is bad: they’re all more than 11% above their peak prices.

Alex B., a residential consumer from Bucharest, consumed 110 kWh in the last month and paid 74.81 lei to his supplier Enel Energie Muntenia, i.e. a capped price of 0.68 lei per MWh.

According to the price comparator on the website of the National Energy Regulatory Authority, the cheapest offer on the market is currently from Hidroelectrica (0.76 lei per MWh), which is 11% above the capped price. The offer is valid until September 30, 2023.

The next offer is from Nova Power and Gas, 24% more expensive, followed by Renovatio, Hermes Energy, Ingka Investments (74% more), E.ON, Electrocarbon, Elsid (80% more) and Enel, CEZ, Electrica. Engie, 91% more. The list continues with the number of 65 offers, the most expensive from Cyeb SRL, respectively 1356 lei per kWh (1700% more than the limited price).

Also higher gas bills

Not the best news for gas bills either, especially for those who live in mountainous areas and consume more. As an example, I chose a bill of 662 lei from Adriana K. from Brasov, who used 2921 kWh in March (the last month with high consumption).

According to the price comparator, the cheapest offer from September 1 is from E.ON, 30% more, followed by CEZ, Enel, Electrica, Nova Power and Gas (41-42% more) and Engie (123% more ). Next – 20 more offers, the largest – from the MVM Energy company (2500% more).

The price comparison offers differ depending on consumers’ geographic region and the type of contract they choose, with or without a subscription.

Current legislation allows energy and gas consumers to switch from one supplier to another at any time for a maximum of 21 days without additional costs.

On the stock market, energy carriers are rising in price again

Since November 2021, when the state introduced the first version of the price cap scheme, state subsidies on electricity and gas bills amounted to 18.7 billion lei.

In the haste of the authorities to find ways to reduce budget expenditures, there was an opportunity to abandon these limits. Moreover, the price of energy carriers on the stock market is lower than in the same period last year. More precisely, in July 2023, the average price on the spot market of the OPCOM energy exchange was 73% lower than in July 2022.

But, even if in the first half of this year the price on the stock exchange constantly decreased, in July it started to grow again, by 13% compared to June.

Solution: phasing out of subsidies

According to the Intelligent Energy Association, one solution could be to phase out subsidies.

“In conclusion, a possible decision to lift the gas price cap should be made at least 6 months in advance, after which a cap removal/compensation calendar should be worked out, so as not to end up in a situation where consumers suffer more than if it were not for the Relief Scheme was implemented and would not determine the way to create opportunistic excess profits for suppliers,” said Dumitru Kiselice, president of the association, according to a press release.

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