The scheme to limit gas and electricity bills has cost the Romanian state approximately 23.5 billion lei, and another 3 billion lei will be withdrawn from the state budget this year, the vice president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority said. , Gabriel Andronachus. It says the market has leveled off and it should begin trading on the exchange from the second half of this year, with the cap scheme to be lifted entirely on April 1, 2025.

Already in the autumn of 2021, when prices started to rise worldwide, the electricity and gas bills paid by Romanian consumers were limited, and the difference from the real price was covered from the state budget.

The authorities plan to maintain the scheme until next spring.

Andronache specified that these expenses of the state budget were covered by funds from energy taxation.

“A price ceiling system was found, a system that worked, which became a model for other states and which, you could say, also produced results in terms of the costs that the state had to bear, but which again these amounts were also taken from the energy system, so that they can cover themselves, it’s very interesting,” said a representative of ANRE a few days ago at a conference organized by Income Magazine.

He showed that in 2022, the amount paid from the state budget to account for the restriction was 14.5 billion lei, and in 2023 the amount is about 9 billion lei.

For 2024, the estimated difference of 3 billion lei between the actual and the capped price that will have to be paid to suppliers is estimated.

Andronache showed that already now in the gas market, suppliers no longer come with bills for settlement, as prices have already fallen below the established limits.

“We expect that in 2024 – while we’re still in this mechanism and even in part of 2025 – everything will be balanced, and we’re already looking carefully at 2025 so that when we come out on April 1 from this mechanism, everything will be to be stable and so that we have predictability, so that there are no dysfunctions and so that we do not have an increase both in the electricity and in the natural gas sector,” said the vice-president of NARE.

He claimed that the market has stabilized and the first steps towards its opening should be taken already this year.

“We don’t want any more restrictions (after April 1, 2025 – no). At the moment, the market is balanced, the situation is stable, and then we should go back to the open market. It should be predictable that suppliers and producers will start slowly, maybe from the second half of this year, to put the amount of energy on the exchange, and the suppliers will start to buy this amount,” Andronash said.

In the electricity market, at the moment, household consumers with small consumption, up to 100 MWh, pay a maximum of 0.68 lei/kWh. Those consuming between 100 and 255 kWh pay up to 0.8 kWh, while those above 255 kWh reach 1.3 lei per kWh.

For gas, the ceiling for household consumers is 0.31 lei per kWh.

Read also:

• The price of electricity on the stock exchange is half as much as a year ago / Why does the Government keep the price limit?
• Government failure to manage gas and electricity prices: Caps are too high and no longer justified, but lifting them could create even more chaos in the energy market

Photo source: Dreamstime