Wind effect: energy is 30% cheaper on the exchange

Bills paid by the small industrial consumers, which still receive part of energy at regulated prices, could drop by around 2-3% as of April 2013, thanks to the significant decrease in power prices due to a rising production of wind energy. For household consumers, it will be seen only as of this summer. The first to benefit from these discounts are however the large consumers, which are active directly on the energy exchange. Yesterday, on the Day Ahead Market of OPCOM energy exchange, energy price for March 14^th was RON 143.6/MWh. On the same day of the past year, the price was RON 243.5/MWh, resulting in a price decrease by 40%. From the beginning of the year to date market specialists say that the average price on this platform decreased, compared with the similar period of 2012, by over 30%. On the market of bilateral contracts, where long-term transactions are made, the beginning of the year brought an average decline of 10% in the prices of agreements between sellers and buyers. Although traditionally for the long-term contracts better prices are obtained than on the Day Ahead Market, currently spot trading is cheaper compared with bilateral contracts. Moreover, currently the spot energy price on the exchange is lower than the regulated basket under which the population and part of the industrial consumers are supplied, which as of January 1^st is worth RON 175.5mln/MWh, according to Mediafax.