Exporter goes to arbitrage against Romanian state electricity producer

EFT Elveţia, a company which has been exporting electricity from Romania since 2001, has opened an arbitrage case at the Arbitrage Court in Bern against Romanian state-owned electricity producer Hidroelectrica, after the state company unilaterally canceled their export contracts in 2012. EFT Elveţia and Hidroelectrica had two long-term electricity export contracts, signed in 2003 and 2004, but Hidroelectrica canceled them as it was trying to restructure its activity, and stop losing money. EFT Elveţia is saying the quantities sold and the prices were established annually by Hidroelectrica at prices set by the market regulator, which covered the production costs and a profit margin. According to the exporter, it paid double the price at which Hidroelectrica was normally selling, and everything was paid up front. EFT argues the canceled contracts brought it a loss of EUR 80 million. Romania’s Hidroelectrica heads towards EUR 225 mln profit this year Romania’s energy producer Hidroelectrica to exit insolvency in 2015, says judicial administrator