Romania to ask EC to compensate disparities in regional electricity price

The Romanian authorities intend to ask for compensation from the European Commission due to the significant differences in energy prices between the east and the west of Europe, minister of energy Sebastian Burduja said during the South East Europe Green EPC event on September 12, quoted by Bursa.ro.

He implied Austria failed to allow comparatively cheaper electricity from Western Europe to be traded in Eastern Europe.

The minister of energy drew attention to the fact that Romania, together with other states in the region, such as Greece and Bulgaria, will put on the agenda of the Council of Ministers the need for solutions to compensate for these price differences.

"It's not possible that some people pay the bill and endlessly tolerate prices that are two, three times higher than in the rest of Europe, which is why I will bring this subject to the attention of the Council of Ministers at the European level. Together with Greece, Bulgaria, with all the other countries interested, we will have to define some quick solutions by which we must be compensated for these price differences. That seems fair and normal to me," minister Burduja said.

He emphasized that prices in the eastern region are much higher than those in Western Europe due to several factors, including unfavorable weather conditions and interconnection problems.

"There are several months when, unfortunately, prices in our region are significantly higher than in Western Europe. This is due to several factors. Of course, we are discussing a dry year, lower hydro production, we are discussing problems in the interconnection area, maintenance on certain lines in Hungary, we are discussing reduced capacity in Austria, transfer/export of cheaper electricity from western Europe to eastern Europe," Burduja stated.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)