Romania to implement EC’s recommendations on cutting electricity consumption

Romania will reduce electricity consumption by 10% (voluntarily) and by 5% during peak hours (mandatory) and will “collect” revenues in excess of EUR 180 per MWh derived from the sale of electricity from December 2022 to June 2023 - in line with the “political consensus” reached among the European Union member states, energy minister Virgil Popescu announced.

The funds “collected” from the energy companies will be used to finance social protection measures.

Supplementary, a “solidarity tax” will be levied on the companies involved in fossil fuels processing.

Explicitly asked to elaborate on how the 10% and respectively 5% electricity reduction will be enforced, minister Popescu assured that the households would not be affected - but only the industrial consumers, Adevarul reported. It remains unclear, however, how the 10% and 5% reduction will be calculated (compared to what) and what industrial consumers will be delivered less electricity.

The European Commission also recommended that the member states reduce their electricity consumption by more than 10%, and in this regard, the companies could be incentivised.

Romania has the lowest per capita electricity consumption in European Union, 2.7MWh per year, compared to 6.6MWh in Germany, according to Mediafax, quoting the latest aggregate statistics from the International Energy Agency.

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