The government approved on Thursday the extension of the energy price capping & offsetting scheme, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja told a briefing at the end of the government meeting, explaining that the scheme’s extension for electricity stays in force until July 1, and that for gas the cap will stay in place for another 12 months. „The government’s zero priority is to protect the Romanians. This is the motivation for this decision,” said the minister.
Citing Eurostat data, he emphasized that thanks to the energy price capping scheme, Romania had the fifth lowest price for electricity and the fourth lowest price for gas in the entire European Union.
Sebastian Burduja added that as per the new Emergency Ordinance, the caps rates remain the same.
„For electricity, this extra quarter is usually a period with low market prices, so we do not expect suppliers to request large amounts as part of the capping & offsetting process. For gas, it was important to cover the entire gas year, because, as you know, we will come out of the cold season with a reduced filling rate of gas storage facilities, not just us, but the entire European Union, and refilling these facilities will mean an increased demand for gas; without the capping measures, the Romanians would have paid next winter much higher bills to support this process,” Burduja explained.
The minister also mentioned that this regulatory act is a move to facilitate a higher liquidity on the market, requiring the producers to sell 50% of the energy available on the wholesale or forward markets, compared to 40% in the past. Burduja announced that a support mechanism for Romanians in energy poverty will be developed during this transitional period together with the Labor Ministry.
He explained that the cap extension decision has taken into account the fact that in recent months, for reasons out of Romania’s control, prices on international markets have increased significantly after the halt of the Russian gas transit through Ukraine, which triggered an increase of up to 65% for gas prices on the European market and of around 25% for electricity prices.
AGERPRES
