Romanian regulator cancels supply licenses for disruptive energy traders

Romania’s National Authority for Energy Regulation (ANRE) will revoke the electricity supply license of another three or four companies that generated problems in the market in January, said the ANRE president Niculae Havrilet yesterday, reports local Economica.net. In January, the electricity price continuously increased on the spot market reaching the historical record of over RON 650 (EUR 143) per MWh at the end of the month. This was double compared to the first days of the year. ANRE started an investigation on the causes that led to this situation. Several energy traders terminated their contracts with consumers in order to sell the energy on the spot market, at much higher prices. “We’ve completed several controls, investigations and we’ve reached the conclusions that some traders acted wrongly, endangering contracts with major consumers, generating cost elements for network operators, and end suppliers,” said Havrilet. These traders saw their license revoked. They also received fines, the ANRE president added. In total, ANRE found seven or eight suppliers that generated total losses of RON 440 million (EUR 96.7 million). editor@romania-insider.com