Croatia: Electricity price will grow despite competition games

Published on 7. November 2013., Uncategorized

Although it was announced that with liberalization of the electricity market in Croatia electricity prices would drop and the quality of services would increase, the main players in the market have announced that the reality will still be somewhat different due to a number of market and regulatory conditions. Electricity prices in the future will still grow and better service can be expected only when better regulation and technology are introduced, which is an obligation of the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (HERA) and partly Croatian Electric Power (HEP).

Also, there is still much work for major markets placement, to win the trust of consumers who are still skeptical about alternative service supplier, you could hear at a panel on the current results of liberalization of the electricity market, held in the Energy Market Forum 2013 .

“In the last five months due to a number of factors in the market, including hydrological good year, we recorded historically low electricity prices which is why in future we may expect that the electricity prices increase, but it is not known to what extent. I would to be optimistic, but the electricity in the last two months is going up. Increasing the price will come also for multiple price increases fees for renewable energy that followed the recent decision of the government”, said Zoran Milisa, CEO of RWE energy.

Robert Golob, CEO of GEN-I, however, has more optimism than Milisa and he claims that their electricity price will stay the same over the next three years. GEN-I recently went to a fierce marketing campaign to conquer the market of households in Croatia, promising lower cost than HEP by 30 percent.

“We have already purchased electricity for the next three years, and we can guarantee that by the end of 2015 we will not change our electricity price, and there is no reason not to keep the trend in 2016. However, we can not guarantee the price of network fees, taxes and other charges and it also enters the electricity bill. As things stand now, all consumers in Croatia due to fees for renewable energy will get higher bills for electricity, and I’m afraid that the new charge will be in the future, but suppliers do not decide about that”, says Golob.

Source; Serbia Energy See desk