A year after entering the Croatian electricitymarket the Slovenian Gen-I bragged that it won 5.6% of the total market and 12% of the unregulated market, which refers to the larger customers. The company has concluded 19,513 contracts (16,975 households and 2,538 small business owners) for a year.
Operating income of the company GEN- I Zagreb in 2013th was around 92 MEUR, but the company ended the year with a small minus. In the first quarter of 2014thit was achieved the operating revenues of 30.9 MEUR, while EBITDA amounted to 71 thousand EUR. The sale to end users totaled 94.1 GWhin 2012th, it grew to 354.5 GWh in 2013th , and sale to end users reached 216.5 GWh in the first quarter of 2014th. “Our plan for the first three years was to win 17% of the Croatian market, and just for a year we managed to get almost 6%. Clearly, we are on good track to achieve their goals”, commented Robert Golob, the Administration Manager of Gen-I.
Company representatives also spoke about the aggravating circumstances in the market, where they highlighted the fact that they adopted a new General supplyconditions, which would allow them to offer customers a unique account and the possibility of self-reading, which was why the Slovenian company has temporarilyfrozen its plans when it comes to electricity sales in this segment. Also, electricitysuppliers are very unhappy with the fee for the renewable energy sources which they have to pay to HROTE in proportion to the share on the market. The fee is 70% above the market price and at an average of 70 EUR per MWh, and its determination is not transparent to the end consumers to whom the electricity price is higher due to that.
Also the price of balancing energyin Croatia is significantly higher than in the neighboring countries, which has fallen from 2 EUR per MWh to 1.68 EUR per MWhby using the new methodology. Energy suppliers have no choice but to express those taxes in their price. “If the level of balancing energy and the price of green energy was real, the electricity to large consumers would be cheaper by 5 to 10%, and household could have a 5% lower price”, concluded Golob who believes that this are unsustainable conditions that harm market development. Gen-I pointed out that the current efforts to increase its customer base were focused on businesses that were in a guaranteed supply, and to whom the electricity would increases by 50% from July 1st.They expect to supply 11% of the business segment by the end of the year and at the commentsto work with dumping prices, they say that “work with the dumping it possible only when someone finances you, and it is not so in their case”.