Romania's energy market regulator freezes electricity, natural gas prices for residential users

Romania’s energy market regulator ANRE announced on Tuesday, January 29, that the gas and electricity prices charged by suppliers of last resort will remain frozen at current levels by 2022. The move is taken in line with emergency ordinance 114/2018 under which the price of the natural gas delivered by local producers to residential users is capped at RON 68 (EUR 14.6) per MWh. As regards the electricity, the emergency ordinance delegated to ANRE the duty of drafting regulations with the aim of keeping the prices steady. ANRE has indeed compelled state power producers Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica to sell their output at production cost, plus a 5% margin, to the residential users. ANRE also informed the residential users who have opted for the competitive market that they can return to the regulated market at no extra cost. At this moment, there are some 1.5 million residential users who have opted for a supplier from the competitive market, compared to 7 million who remained with the supplier of last resort. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Shutterstock)