The Association of the Electricity Suppliers proposed changes in the Electricity Law
The Association of the Electricity Suppliers in Romania AFEER, proposed a set of changes for energy Law no. 123/2012. The suggestions were made through the association president Ion Lungu, regarding the implementations of new rules that apply in an equitable manner to all the participants in the market and in conformity with the EU practices.
The amendments propositions cover all the identified gaps and tackle the issues in the actual law with the declared purpose of having an equidistant and transparent electricity market for all the participants.
The first modification refers to establishing a national, unique electricity transportation fee or the remission of it, instead of the actual regional fee imposed by Transelectrica and currently different for every geographic area.
Another critique refers to the client information and establishing new contact points. The suggestion would be for ANRE to allow operators have their own methods for client relationships. The regional and local information points should be smartly disposed, considering the demographics, but no further than 50km away from the consumption places of the domestic consumers.
A strong point regards the radio-TV fee. Presently, it is only awarded to the four biggest suppliers: Electrica, Enel, Cez and E.ON. The amendment allows all suppliers to cash this tax, and obliges clients to pay the tariffs included in the final bill. That is, transportation and distribution fee, the cogeneration contribution, green certificates, radio and TV taxes, etc.
When it comes to vulnerable clients, AFEER requests ANRE to tackle the ambiguity by sending an annual list of these consumers and the recommendations for these ones, other than financial ones.
Bilateral contracts, currently forbidden by the actual legislation, are thought to have an important role in the development of the producing capacities through market mechanisms, since the new entry electricity producing developers cannot sign long term contracts with their suppliers, a mandatory condition from the banks for loan approvals.
Moreover, the current law imposes electricity producers to bid electricity only on the Romanian competition market, regulated by ANRE. Thus, with the interdiction of bilateral contracts, they lose the opportunity to sell energy on other regional and EU markets. Also, the exchange of energy between companies in the same group is impossible with this enforcement.
AFEER also drew attention upon the need for a professional management backed by the European REMIT Regulation on a competition market instead of one manager centralized markets.
AFEER is an independent, nonprofit and nongovernmental interprofessional organization founded in 2006, with a number of 47 members, licensed and active energy suppliers that cover over 90% of Romania’s energy consumption.
by Mihaela Constantin
