Energy prices trigger more discontent
The Legislature in Bucharest is to amend shortly an emergency ordinance on capping energy prices and subsidies
Roxana Vasile, 22.09.2022, 02:00
After they have been
advised to save energy in order to pay lower bills, many Romanians have recently
learnt that something doesn’t actually add up. And that’s because the capping
decided by the government through its latest Emergency Ordinance is not based
on the last month’s consumption but on the average monthly consumption they had
last year.
Things are very
clear on paper: for 100 kilowatts one must pay 0.68 RON. Between 101 and 255
kilowatts, the price is 0.80 RON and consumptions over 255 kilowatts will be charged
heavily under the contracts consumers have signed with energy providers. So, in
order to see if they can benefit the latest measures on capped electricity prices,
the Romanians must check the bills they paid last year and assess their average
consumption on the year that passed.
But because no one
publicly explained how calculations are made, some people have had the
unpleasant surprise of receiving huge electricity bills without understanding
why. According to data published by the National Authority for Energy
Regulations (ANRE), Romania has so far had 4.9 million households in the 100
kilowatts bracket. A little over 3.5 million households are in the second
category while between 100 and 200 thousand households do not benefit any
capping regulations.
Recently submitted
to Parliament, the new capping scheme stipulated by the Emergency Ordinance is
expected to get some new amendments.
Both the ruling and
opposition parties have come up with a series of amendments to the law. For
instance, the co-ruling PSD and opposition USR have been pleading for changing
the way in which the consumption is charged, so that it may not be based on the
last year’s average consumption, but strictly on the consumption they
registered this year. However, ANRE says this solution is difficult to implement
technically and the agency endorses the older method based on the past
consumption.
The co-ruling PNL comes
up with a method based on the average consumption of the last three years. Amid
public discontent triggered by the huge energy bills, Energy Minister Virgil
Popescu has this week called on ANRE to do their job and closely monitor the
energy market while the Consumer Protection Office has been asked to sanction
the providers failing to comply with the regulations. ANRE has already kicked
off a series of unexpected controls at six energy distributors and in turn, the
National Authority for Consumer Protection has started controls at electricity
providers across the country in order to see how electricity bills are being
calculated.
(bill)
