Energy regulator ANRE: It is illegal to force suppliers to deliver energy at lowest price

Forcing suppliers to deliver energy to household consumers at the lowest price is illegal, as it would be in violation of European regulations and would amount to a new Ordinance 114, on Tuesday said Zoltan Nagy-Bege, Vice-President of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), at the online conference "Electricity in the Free Market" organized by the Bursa newspaper. "Given the multiple pressure to which the authority was subjected at the end of December and the beginning of January when we were asked that these suppliers fit the 5.7 to 5.8 million household consumers in the regulated market at the lowest prices in their supply portfolio, I would like to point out that, in our view, it would have been and it is illegal. This is because the EU Regulation 943 on the internal electricity market and Directive 944, which had a transposition deadline at the end of last year, would be broken. These two pieces of legislation make it very clear that prices must be made by supply and demand and no Government, Parliament or regulator has the right to interfere with prices, because states are taking measures so that there is competition in the market," the ANRE official said. In his opinion, such an obligation would have the same effects as Ordinance 114 (on the establishment of measures in the field of public investments and fiscal-budgetary measures, as of 28 Dec 2018, . n.) used to have. "Such an interference by an emergency ordinance or an ANRE order for a period of time no matter how short or longer, would have broken the Regulation and the Directive and I would dare say, even if it creates controversy, that it would be tantamount to a new OUG 114, with the same effects," Nagy-Bege said. This would have led to an increase in energy prices for consumers who were already in the open market, he explained. "We have offered a transition period for household consumers until 1 July 2021, until they receive new offers and new information from suppliers, and after 1 July they will continue to have the opportunity to move into the competitive market at any time. So nothing ends, no one loses any train, there is no deadline by which someone has to change their contract, this can be done at any time, and the law stipulated that if a consumers expresses this desire, the old supplier must let them go within 21 days," the ANRE official added.AGERPRES(RO - author: Florentina Cernat, editor: Andreea Marinescu; EN - author: Maria Voican, editor: Simona Iacob)