Two out of three Romanian households would not change their electricity supplier

Nearly two-thirds of Romanians do not plan to change their electricity supplier this year, according to a poll, although independent suppliers offer prices more than 10% lower than those of incumbent suppliers in most parts of the county.

A share of 64% of energy consumers are not going to change their supplier this year, the main reason being the fear of change, according to a survey conducted by the Romanian Institute for Evaluation and Strategy (IRES) quoted by Agerpres.

Of the total respondents, 51% were in the regulated market, 37% in the free market, and the remaining 12% did not know which category they fell into or did not answer. Of those who entered the open market, 84% kept the same supplier.

Intelligent Energy Association (AEI) evaluated the differential between the best offers (lowest prices) of incumbent suppliers and independent suppliers.

Enel, which supplies three out of Romania's eight regions, charges only 4-5% more than the most competitive independent supplier (end-user prices) in all three regions it serves.

Meanwhile, all the other incumbent suppliers seem to capitalize on the households' reluctance to sign new contracts.

E.ON Distributie, the incumbent supplier in the Moldova region (North-East), charges at least 19% more than its competitors' best offer, according to Profit.ro.

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