Four Romanian natural gas suppliers (Engie, E.ON
\nEnergie, Restart Energy One and Premier Energy) have been fined for plans to
\nincrease tariffs while under fixed-price contracts. They are now bound to notify
\ntheir clients who entered fixed-price contracts, that the price of natural gas
\nsupply will remain unchanged throughout the contractual period.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) found
\nthat these companies have breached their contractual obligations. The suppliers
\nwere fined for having drawn up standard contract offers that failed to specify either
\nthe contract period, or the terms and conditions for unilaterally cancelling
\ncontracts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The fines amount to some 545,000 euro, and the
\nAuthority promises to continue monitoring the conduct of all suppliers, and in
\ncase new breaches of relevant legislation are found, to address them
\naccordingly. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
In response, two companies announced they would
In this very difficult context, the respective
With 95% of the bills accounted for by the natural
<\/p>\n
The authorities are considering a ceiling on
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Energy Regulatory Authority has fined 4 natural gas suppliers for planned tariff increases<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":89927,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[40373,36008,28918,35108,30821,35104,30256,40374,40372],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-90126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-authority","tag-contracts","tag-energy","tag-fines","tag-gas","tag-natural","tag-prices","tag-regulatory","tag-suppliers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\ntake the matter to court, and argue they had done nothing wrong and that
\ninternational natural gas prices have skyrocketed. They warn that, in case the
\nmeasures intended to mitigate the effects on end consumers are not based on
\nfair and just economic principles, this will have swift and substantial
\nrepercussions on suppliers, and implicitly on their clients, not only in terms
\nof prices, but also of the safety of supply ahead of the winter season. <\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\ncompanies argue, all stakeholders-authorities and private operators-need to work
\ntogether to identify viable, fair and responsible solutions to overcome this
\ncrisis. <\/em><\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\ngas procurement, storage, transport and distribution costs, suppliers only gain 5% <\/strong>of the invoiced amounts, <\/em>the operators in question also explained. After
\nthe gas prices rose spectacularly, Romanian suppliers have raised tariffs
\nseveral times, and these successive price rises and the small profit margin
\nreflect in consumers’ bills. For
\nexample, this summer the average price was 0.12 leu \/ Kwh, while at present it
\nreaches 0.6 leu \/ Kwh, i.e. 5 times more. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nenergy prices, but this can be done through a state-aid scheme that must be
\napproved by the European Commission, the line minister Virgil Popescu said. He emphasised
\nthat, if suppliers are not bound to purchase electricity for the smallest price
\nin the market and if they are not monitored, energy bills will increase
\nsignificantly in a matter of months, and it is citizens who will stand to
\nsuffer. (tr. A.M. Popescu)<\/p>\n