The Competition Council accepted the commitments made by Hidroelectrica regarding a possible abuse of a dominant position

The Competition Council announced that it has accepted the commitments assumed by Hidroelectrica SA in order to eliminate the competitive concerns within the identified investigation regarding a possible abuse of a dominant position on the electricity production and trading market.

The commitments concern the way in which Hidroelectrica will sell the energy produced on the Next Day Market (DAM) and on the Balancing Market (PE).

Thus, the company undertakes to offer for sale on DAM, a quantity of electricity at a maximum price determined on the basis of the price provided in the forward contracts.

At the same time, Hidroelectrica undertakes to separate, within the company, the activity of bidding on PE from that of bidding on DAM.

The implementation of this set of measures will lead to direct and immediate benefits for all participants in the electricity markets, being likely to lead to an increase in the quantities traded by the company on the spot markets and to a decrease in energy quantities representing imbalances generated in the National Energy System, which can adversely affect consumers by raising the price of electricity.

The monitoring period of the implementation of the commitments by Hidroelectrica is 3 years.

Prior to acceptance by the Competition Council, the commitments proposed by Hidroelectrica were subject to public consultation, as well as to the specialized consultation of the National Energy Authority (ANRE).

The Competition Council's investigation, launched in September 2018, aimed at a potential abuse of a dominant position on the electricity generation and trading market, manifested by a bidding behavior that limited the amount of energy traded on some market segments (mainly on DAM), in order to achieve sales at significantly higher prices per EP.

DAM is a component of the wholesale electricity market, respectively the main spot electricity market in Romania, and represents the organized framework in which electricity transactions take place for each time interval of the next day (which is also the day of delivery). The closing price of the DAM is currently used as a reference price in the field of electricity. 

The EP is also one of the components of the wholesale electricity market, organized by the Transmission System Operator (TSO), which has the role of balancing the production-consumption balance in real time, in order to maintain the safety and stability of the SEN. .

The EP mainly meets the need of market participants to adjust the amount of energy contracted according to demand and has a strong technical component. On the EP, TSOs buy and / or sell electricity from / to market participants owning units and / or dispatchable consumptions.

On the EP, which is a penalizing market, the price is generally higher than the market closing price recorded on DAM.