Although the electricity market in Bosnia and Herzegovina is open to all customers from the beginning of the last year, it seemed that there is not much interest among companies and citizens to replace traditional suppliers such as power utilities. However, recent trends show firms are increasingly starting to think about changing, particularly since a lot of distributors now offer prices up to 20% lower, Akta.ba reported.
Asked to comment the switch and how big the interest of companies is, Ognjen Marković from Energy Investment Activity (EIA) project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said that at the beginning of this year conditions were met for independent suppliers and customers connected to the distribution network (manufacturing and services) to appear on the market, the former to offer electricity, and the latter to buy. The circumstances are the result of practical implementation of adopted rules for the operation of the market and of the decrease in wholesale prices of electricity in the region, which allowed independent suppliers to offer better terms to one category of customers than traditional suppliers had, he said.
Marković stressed private businesses should show interest in the new situation, especially those that have a significant share of electrical energy costs in production. “Of course, when choosing a supplier buyers should be careful and mustn’t rush, because the reliability and quality are a very important factor in the decision,” he said.
So far several customers changed the supplier and even more of them plan to do it soon, the article said. Marković added he has no accurate data, but that according to estimates, that number could be around 10.
The thesis is supported by the analysis of the Center for Education and Raising Awareness of Energy Efficiency – Energis from Sarajevo that has been done before the opening of the market. It showed that in order to reduce the cost of electricity, 68.75% of the citizens would change their supplier if they get a favorable price. Only 7% citizens were satisfied with the current supplier and would not change it, while 22.5% of respondents would not change the supplier because they do not want to risk the supply of electricity.
