Electricity costs expected to drop in Romania after competition body reveals market rigging deal

Georgeta Gheorghe 19/04/2018 | 16:59

Romania’s Competition Council said today that the costs of electricity are expected to drop, as a result of an investigation by the regulatory body, the council’s head Bogdan Chiritoiu said. 

According to the competition regulator, their investigation showed that several energy companies entered a market rigging deal at the expense of consumers, Chiritoiu argued. The Competition Council launched today its 2017 activity report.

According to the report, several companies suffered prejudices. “People from within Electrica company were involved, so in a way they cheated themselves. We also gave sanctions to Electrica, as their customers were also affected. The over evaluated tariffs were passed on to the customers,” Chiritoiu said. “As a first, we want that, together with the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) to recover the prejudice caused to the clients of these companies, which suffered a prejudice and transferred this prejudice to their clients,” Chiritoiu added.

According to him, the amount of the prejudice suffered by customers is difficult to assess, as the case involves tenders that had a duration of several years.

“We are talking about several years during which the prices were increased artificially. Here ANRE will play the key role, because it is their role to calculate the correct price. We will support them with the data we obtained during the investigation,” Chiritoiu said.

The easiest way to make up for the prejudice, he argued, is to cut tariffs on distribution, something he will recommend to ANRE. Niculae Havrilet, advisor to the Ministry of Energy and former ANRE head, said that consumers should indeed see a drop in electricity distribution costs.

 

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