More than four weeks after Romania started a controversial liberalization process on the retail electricity market, energy market regulator ANRE issued a final order that failed to address the problems signaled by consumers and specialists.

The order brings nothing new and offers no protection to households that will predictably end up paying higher prices or will give up the idea of seeking an independent supplier on the free market.

The new rules rather complicated the problem, energy expert Razvan Nicolescu commented quoted by Agerpres.

Under the order passed by ANRE on January 20, presented by Hotnews.ro, the incumbent suppliers are compelled to provide information about their "best offer" and "are allowed" to offer discounts to clients choosing to stay with them and not sign contracts with independent suppliers.

The discounts suggested by ANRE would cover the differential for the high price (universal service price) paid by default by all residential customers as of January 1 until they sign a free market contract.

Furthermore, the households "are allowed to choose the private supplier" until the end of June. But none of these provisions are new. Households can change their suppliers whenever they want (not only until the end of June), and suppliers are allowed to offer discounts for whatever commercial reasons they may find appropriate.

ANRE hasn't addressed the problem of households seeking to sign with independent suppliers (such as Hidroelectrica, Tinmar, Restart Energy) that have to pay a higher price to their incumbent supplier until they manage to switch to the new one.

Although the sums may not be high on an individual basis (but significant for the suppliers), they breach the competition rules and discourage households from seeking suppliers other than the incumbent ones. This supports the criticism of those who claim that the regulations favor incumbent suppliers. 

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iulian@romania-insider.com