On the eve of the elections, the state authorities make contradictory statements regarding energy prices. Today, the President of the Competition Council, Bohdan Chiritsoyu, said that the market has adjusted and prices have reached the level before the war in Ukraine. Just a day ago, yesterday, the relevant minister, Sebastian Burduja, said that there is a risk that the bills will go crazy, and for this reason, the extension of the price cap until 2026 is being considered.

“It is an election year, difficult from an economic point of view. We are seeing more government interventions than in other years. Our job is not to prevent the government from intervening, but to advise the government that the interventions do not harm the competitive market, that they are designed in such a way as to minimize the negative impact on the economy,” said Chiritsou, today, in as part of the PRIA Competition conference.

These discussions take up a lot of our time, we allocate a lot of resources, he added.

“We have an energy intervention that, in principle, was supposed to end at the beginning of next year. This is the most important state intervention born of the crisis. Discussions are now underway to repaint. We notice that the market has improved, we are returning to energy prices close to those before the crisis in Ukraine, and now this very expensive mechanism through which the Government intervenes in the energy market is being reviewed,” continued the president of Competition. council.

Burduja: “We cannot risk market liberalization”

Yesterday, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja announced plans to extend the marginal compensation scheme for electricity and gas prices for another year, until March 2026.

“Yes, that’s an option. The scheme expires on March 31, 2025. I would not like to comment now whether it will be extended or not. This is an opportunity, in the idea of ​​assessing the dynamics in the market, of the development of conflicts in the region. In a maximum of two weeks, we will have an option to modify the scheme,” he said at a press conference.

Why is this scheme still needed, because energy prices on the stock exchange are half as low as last year?”, journalists asked him.

“For reasons of stability for the end customer. We cannot risk liberalizing the market and finding the bills crazy. Taking into account the geopolitical context and what is happening on Romania’s border, from my point of view, a certain level of regulation in the short and medium term is reasonable.”

There are no subsidy schemes in other European countries, why would our bills go crazy?”, the journalists insisted.

“I think they have subsidy schemes, but they are probably better targeted at certain socio-economic categories, something that Romania should also do, from my point of view, after March 2025,” Burduja replied.

The cost of energy carriers on the stock exchange has doubled compared to last year

According to OPCOM energy exchange data, in February the average price of energy on the day-ahead market (the corresponding exchange market) was 347 lei per MWh, half of last year’s same month (699 lei per MWh).

The scheme established by the Government provides a mechanism for the centralized purchase of electricity (MACEE), through which producers sell energy to suppliers with end consumers at a price of 450 lei/MWh.

The difference between the price paid by consumers and the market price is covered by the state budget.

So far, since the fall of 2021, when the first restriction scheme was introduced, the state has paid out approximately 22 billion lei to suppliers and owed these companies another 3 billion lei.

Read also The price of electricity and gas in offers for household consumers falls even more in March / Why does the Government keep the restriction scheme?

The European Commission is analyzing the legality of the energy price capping and compensation scheme in Romania

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