Energy bills under scrutiny
Following multiple complaints, the National Authority for Consumer Protection is checking the way in which electricity providers calculated the bills for citizens
Roxana Vasile, 07.10.2022, 13:50
Since January 1, 2021, when the energy market was completely liberalized, chaos has been reigning in Romania, and that has already become the normal. In the beginning, people were promised a competitive energy price, and were offered, in some cases only in theory, the opportunity to choose the supplier and offer that would best meet their needs, at a competitive price. Its just that, insufficiently prepared, this liberalization has been more trouble than help, and the Romanian citizens have been forced, among other things, to wait sometimes even months for an invoice to arrive at their home, which, in addition, was ridiculously high.
The situation got even more complicated with Russias invasion of Ukraine, this time the entire European market being deeply shaken. Romania was no exception. For better or for worse, in the last few months, things in the country had taken a path of quasi-normality. The changes made to the most recent government ordinance regarding energy price caps are now, however, once again causing delays in the arrival of bills. The suppliers say that they did not have time to modify the computer programs for classifying consumers in the categories that benefit from price reductions, so that the population may have to pay only once, and only towards the end of the year, the bill for two or three months consumption.
Meanwhile, the National Authority for Consumer Protection kept carrying out controls, after registering a big number of complaints about how energy bills are calculated. At the hearings of the Parliamentary Commission inquiring into the causes of the substantial increase in electricity and natural gas prices, the president of the National Authority for Consumer Protection, Claudiu Dolot, stated that, based on reports, 92 companies were checked in September. Irregularities were found with 32 of them. The most serious concern non-compliance with contractual clauses, the provisions being changed unilaterally by suppliers only three months after signing the documents. There are over 900 registered complaints on this issue!
Representatives of Hidroelectrica and Romgaz, the largest producers of electricity and natural gas in Romania, will be invited to the next meeting of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry. As for the leadership of Nuclearelectrica, the only producer of nuclear energy in the country, it has announced that unit 3 of the Cernavodă Plant (south-east) will be completed in 2030, when the company will be able to ensure over 30% of the consumption needs at national level. But, there are still seven years to wait until we get there. (MI)
