The government is considering the possibility of extending the scheme of maximum prices for energy carriers for another year, until 2026, the corresponding minister, Sebastian Burduja, said on Monday. In his opinion, subsidies should be better aimed at certain socio-economic categories, as is customary in other countries. At the same time, the price of energy carriers on the energy exchange has doubled compared to last year.

“We have a scheme that works widely, it has provided stability for the end user, predictability for the rest of the chain. However, we have encountered difficulties from compensating suppliers and the debts are significant, in the Ministry of Energy we are talking about 1.5 – 1.6 billion lei for settlements with suppliers, to which are added the amounts that must be returned from the Ministry of Energy. of labor,” said the minister.

In total, the debt will amount to about 3 billion lei, and discussions are underway with the Ministry of Finance about how these debts can be paid.

“In this context, we have taken into account the fact that market prices have fallen, and then together with ANRE we are developing a formula to adjust the compensation scheme – a limitation that will reflect these lower market prices and will be felt at the Romanian level as well. Prices for the final consumer will not increase under any circumstances,” Burduya said.

“It’s a great balance between the need for stability, the volatility of the market, given that we have a war on the border, and the challenges of competition,” he continued.

When asked whether the scheme could be extended until 2026, Burduja replied:

• “Yes, that’s an option. It expires on March 31, 2025. I would not like to say now whether it will be extended or not. This is an opportunity, in the idea of ​​developing dynamics in the market, of developing conflicts in the region.
• In a maximum of two weeks, we will have an option to modify the scheme.
• We will correspond with the European Commission. The European Commission is giving us the go-ahead, they told us ‘you have flexibility’ until 31 March 2025, but there is an important correspondence that we have to do and we will do it.”

Why is this scheme still needed, since the price on the stock exchange is twice as high 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.

He added that, according to Eurostat, taking into account the restrictions on consumer prices, Romania ranks fourth for the cheapest gas and fifth for energy in the EU.

The price of energy carriers on the exchange February 2024, half of February 2023

When asked whether the mechanism of centralized purchase of energy from producers on the exchange is being abolished, the minister said that he does not take this into account.

“I believe that this mechanism is still needed. One option is to make the price lower.”

At the moment, through this centralized electricity purchase mechanism (MACEE), electricity producers are obliged to sell electricity to end-user suppliers at a price of 450 lei/MWh.

According to OPCOM data, in February, the average price of energy on the day-ahead market was 347 lei per MWh, which is double compared to the same month last year (699 lei per MWh).