Romania: In 2019 many residential electricity consumers switched to competitive market
, SEE Energy NewsResidential consumers have been divided into two categories: those of the competitive market, with a contract signed with a supplier of their choice, and those on the regulated market, which continued to receive electricity at prices regulated by National Authority for Energy Regulation (ANRE) from the four suppliers of last resort, Enel, Electrica, CEZ and E.ON. The reason was that on 1 March 2019, following the provisions of GEO 114/2108, ANRE reintroduced regulated prices for the supply of electricity to residential consumers.
Recently, ANRE published the report on the regulated market for the first quarter of this year, namely one year after the reintroduction of regulated prices. The total number of residential consumers served by suppliers of last resort decreased by 5 % in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019 and by 1 % compared to the fourth quarter of 2019.
In absolute terms, in the first quarter of this year regulated residential customers totaled 6.078 million, compared to 6.372 million in the first quarter of last year, when the regulation was reintroduced. In other words, even with the reintroduction of regulated prices, in the period of one year almost 300,000 residential customers left the regulated market and switched to the competitive one. However, the number is much lower than those who had migrated a year before (Q1 2018 – Q1 2019), when 1.12 million residential consumers made this step.
In the past year, Electrica consolidated its share on the regulated market, reaching over 50 %. Both CEZ and E.ON increased their share, the only decrease being recorded at Enel. At the end of Q1 2020, Electrica had a share of 53 % in the regulated residential market (50 % in Q1 2019), Enel’s market share decreased from 23 to 17 %, CEZ’ market share increased from 11 to 13 %, while that of E.ON increased from 16 to 17 %.
From 1 January 2021, electricity market for residential consumers will be fully liberalized.
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