Romania’s state-owned energy companies Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica to sell up to 50% of production at regulated prices

Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica will sell at regulated prices up to 50% of energy supplied, respectively up to 40%, to maintain “reasonable” prices for household consumers, according to an order of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE). According to ANRE, this measure will be implemented during the energy price deregulation calendar, i.e. until December 31^st 2017. In the previous years, the two companies were forced to sell at regulated prices even 70% of energy supplied, at prices which sometimes were lower than production costs. Hidroelectrica covers approximately 30% of national energy consumption, while Nuclearelectrica provides about 20% of the annual electricity demand. The purpose of this provision is to maintain reasonable and comparable values for regulated tariffs of energy supplied to household consumers and for the staged reduction of energy amounts sold by producers based on regulated contracts. Government must gradually quit regulated gas and electricity prices, for both industrial consumers and households, as a result of its commitment to the International Monetary Fund. For household electricity consumers, price liberalization started on July 1^st and will gradually continue until December 31^st 2017. After that, there will no longer be regulated electricity prices. For the industrial consumers, liberalization started on September 1^st 2012 and will end on January 1^st 2014.