When full market liberalization comes into force, as of 1 January, electricity bills for Romanian residential consumers will increase by up to 10 %, according to the President of the Intelligent Energy Association (AEI) Dumitru Chisalita. Chisalita explained that the 10 % rise results from changes in the regulated transport and distribution fees, cogeneration fees, and higher prices on the free market compared to the prices on the regulated market.
The electricity distribution fees will increase on average by 3.46 % on average (depending on the region of the country), the electricity transmission fee will increase by 23 % and the system services fees will decrease by 17 %. The cogeneration fee has already been increased from 1 November. Besides all this, the price of electricity in the free market is 3-5 % higher than the current regulated price.
However, 2.8 million residential consumers who already signed supply contract on the free market, will only feel the increase of various fees, which translates to about 6 % higher electricity bills.