The Ministry of Energy supports the approach of strict verification of compliance with legislation by suppliers on the gas and electricity market. In accordance with the legal framework, these checks are carried out by the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), says the Ministry of Energy’s point of view on the request of Prime Minister Marcel Čolaka to check why electricity and gas prices are low. is growing in conditions of falling European markets.

• The National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) already exercises full control over 6 large electricity suppliers, with 3 main large gas suppliers, as well as traders, according to the answers sent by the institution to some HotNews.ro requests. ANRE observed that some suppliers reported high values ​​in end-user contracts and energy volumes were consistently sold in order to increase the price. Companies face a fine of 5% of turnover.
• As a reminder, HotNews.ro exclusively wrote a series of articles about the rise in gas and electricity prices, while they are falling on European markets, and about how the state subsidizes the huge profits of suppliers.
• End consumers, both household and industrial, were not directly affected by the price increase. But they suffer indirectly, because the state has suffered losses due to the application of the maximum compensation scheme. The state is obliged to bear the price difference, and in some cases there are suspicions that suppliers and traders did not comply with the law. So far, the state has paid more than 22 billion lei to suppliers. And many more billions to come.

Sebastien Bourduilla: Since August, we have asked ANRE to carry out inspections

Minister Sebastien Bourduilla claims that since August of this year he has officially asked ANRE to carry out the necessary inspections. This is in conditions where the Ministry of Energy “does not have the legal right to control energy suppliers.”

“As a minister, I officially and publicly asked NARE to check how suppliers in the gas and electricity market comply with the provisions of GEO 27/2022. (…) In addition, the notifications we receive from individuals and legal entities regarding such situations we pass on to ANRE,” Burduja said.

According to him, ANRE verifies the amounts requested by the suppliers under the scheme of the maximum amount of compensation, only the requests confirmed by ANRE are ultimately decided by the Ministry of Energy, respectively the Ministry of Labor, within the limits of the amounts provided by the Ministry of Finance.

“In August, I, as the Minister of Energy, sent a request to NARE with a request to check whether, in particular, gas suppliers comply with the price cap provisions of GEO 27/2022, given that this GEO mentions that gas producers are obliged to sell natural gas at a regulated price gas needed for consumption by domestic consumers and for the production of thermal energy,” said Burduzha.

It states that NARE reports not to the Ministry of Energy, but to the parliament, and the Ministry of Energy does not control NARE. The Ministry of Energy supports, with all the institutional levers at its disposal, the Romanian government’s efforts to require gas suppliers to comply with the price ceiling.

How we subsidize the huge profits of suppliers and merchants

Suppliers, especially through trading activities, have made huge profits in 2022, the state has poured many billions of lei into them, there is no price signal in the market, the next years are surrounded by complete uncertainty, and consumers do not benefit from the lowest prices, as for example in Hungary and Bulgaria. Vice versa. As far as contract prices are concerned, Romania is one of the highest in the EU, and with limited ones – somewhere in the middle of the ranking.

So far, the state has paid out 22.4 billion lei to suppliers, and by 2025 there will be many more billions.

The current cap level in Romania was set on GEO 27/2022, when electricity and natural gas prices were very high. At the same time, prices on European markets fell sharply – three times for electricity and 90% for gas. It is unclear how justified the current restrictions are in Romania, and it is difficult to analyze this aspect in the absence of a free market and price signals.

In Romania, the price of gas is not free, the restriction starts with the producers. They are obliged to sell at a price of 150 lei/MWh. This is the purchase price, plus shipping, distribution and supplier markups. For the final household consumer, the price is limited to 0.31 lei/kWh, which means 310 lei/MWh, and for non-household consumers – 0.37 lei/kWh (370 lei/MWh), for the annual consumption of no more than 50,000 MWh.

See a series of HotNews.ro articles on the topic of high gas and electricity prices:

• High electricity and gas price scandal: ANRE controls six major electricity suppliers, three main major gas suppliers and some traders
  
• Why energy prices on the spot market in Romania are higher than in the West / Explained by suppliers
• Winter began with low gas prices on European markets / In Romania, prices are blocked by ceilings
• The response of the Ministry of Energy is full of contradictions, with which it protects the huge profits of energy suppliers: Companies complain that they did not receive subsidies worth billions of lei from the state on time
• Who are the businessmen and companies that benefited from the energy crisis in Romania / The supplier had a turnover of 18,346% and a profit of 3,298%
• What are the reasons why Romania has one of the highest electricity and gas prices in the EU / Explanation of the Ministry of Energy: Not only in Romania, companies have taken advantage
• Energy ceilings hide unreasonably high prices in the producer-supplier chain / What is checked on the market