Cut in distribution fees slashes power prices

Electricity distribution fees will go down 8% to 10% on January 1 and household electricity prices will be reduced by 5% to 6%, president of the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) Niculae Havrileţ said, Romanian news agency Act Media reported. Energy fees will decrease proportionally to the fall in distribution fees included in the end price, he explained. The distribution fee will go down and the cogeneration bonus will also decrease, by 4%, Havrileţ told the 25^th edition of the Energy Focus Conferences.

The annual compulsory quota of electricity produced from renewable sources for 2016 is to be 12.5% of gross final consumption of electricity and under these conditions the impact of green certificates in the bill of the end consumer of electricity will be RON 35 (EUR 7.78) per MWh, according to a draft government decision published on the site of the Ministry of Energy. A quota of 17% had initially been in law, so producers made their business plans accordingly. Taking into account the exemption agreements issued so far and ones estimated to be granted until the end of 2016, the impact in the bill will actually be about EUR 9.57 per MWh, according to the draft, Energynomics.ro reported.

The annual compulsory quota of electricity produced from renewable sources for 2016 is to be 12.5% of final consumption of power, instead of 17% initially set by law.

Until the end of August, 27 agreements of exception were issued, corresponding to almost 6 TWh, and until the end of the year this could reach 8 TWh. Thus, keeping the level of sustainability of the promotion scheme for energy from renewable sources at the level of the end consumers is difficult to put to practice taking into consideration the issuing of exception agreements in 2015, their pressure being transferred to the non-excepted end user, namely population and small and medium-sized enterprises, the presentation says. The exemptions are given to large industrial customers based on an energy-intensity index.

In 2015, the annual compulsory quota was reduced to 11.9% against 17% as it was established in law. Ministry of Energy claims that new mandatory quota will lead to the trading of about 60% of green certificates issued for the energy delivered.