Low-price utilities era is coming to an end (Premier Energy)

She says that the liberalisation of the energy market overlapped with an international context of price increases, and under these conditions, the authorities should finalise legislation as soon as possible to help vulnerable consumers.

Panescu believes that a good measure for a short period of time would be including the reduction of taxes in the energy sector, as Spain did.

She also speaks, in the interview, about Gazprom's influence on the Romanian gas market. Premier Energy is the third largest distributor of gas in the country and among the top five suppliers at national level.

Panescu says it is a difficult time in a difficult international and local context.
"In Romania we have excessively high temperatures, we had the shutdown of a reactor, we have regulatory changes, speaking of the 15-minute settlement (on the power exchange - n.r.), all these put pressure, in the context of market liberalisation. It is normal, if we liberalise the market, in the context of demand-offer, that for the first time we have a precious increase, but, fueled by the context in which we find ourselves, Romania marks some European maximums," says Panescu.

And, she goes on saying that "We are not the only ones. The Romanian market is interconnected with the European market, this is the trend in Europe, unfortunately I do not think that we will have from here on low prices for electricity, this also in the context of decarbonisation and the ambitions of the EU with the reduction of gas emissions by 55% by 2030. It encourages renewable energy, but we're kind of insufficient in terms of production, we have to increase, and then we have nothing to do, we look from the sidelines."

"The Romanian state can promote the regulations regarding the vulnerable consumers.

"The sadness is that the problems come from the past, basically they have worsened in 2020 as a result of the Covid crisis. We have about 40 pct of the families in Romania with the inability to pay their utility bills. The suppliers, we, on the gas side, tried to support them as much as we could, in the sense that we did not disconnect, we re-established older debts, if they had supporting documents, that is, we do not want the customers to get into stubbornness, because it is not a sustainable model.

"It's going to be difficult. It will be seen whether the Government mobilizes in time to come up with something tangible. We see in other countries that taxes on energy, gas have already decreased, Spain has done it," she adds.

Panescu says that "in the long run, investments should be made. To have a favorable framework for investors. The appetite exists, the market exists, the potential is totally untapped at what things can be done next."

"If we take a look at our resources, we have the local production, which is downsizing, because our natural resources have touched their maturity, so investments are needed, but that takes long. So, the production is further going to decrease.

"Then we have imports, which come from Russia, and Gazprom is happy now, it's at the buttons. But it's following its interests, obviously, that's Nord Stream. Just the other day there was news of how to let go of some streams on Nord Stream 2, and all the world and that there was no approval, but immediately it was seen in the price, which went down. Last week Gazprom announced that it had problems on the supply chain, with a pipeline through the north, and immediately the prices went up. On the Romanian market it was seen from one day to the next, the price increased by 20 RON, which is a lot, it means a volatility of 10-15 pct.

"Gazprom has announced that it is prepared to deliver 6 billion cubic meters through Nord Stream by the end of the year. The message was, "We can, now it's up to you if you can receive."

According to Iuliana Panescu, the Romanian consumer should do a number of moves, which could ber paramount to exactly know what they consume and have to pay: watch very carefully the prices' comparative vendor analysis and read its index and transmit it, so that they are not billed on an estimated index.

"We had a 24 pct renewable energy production in 2019. Romania has an ambitious plan in the Green Deal and it is clear that there is interest and players who have announced that they are putting their capacity into operation, but it is an area to be encouraged. The state has done some steps in this regard, but there are still things to be done. It is estimated that somewhere in two years we could also have the legislation aligned with the European one, and I am referring to the long-term contracts between market participants, contracts for the difference, there is more to be done and it is important that there is will and that encourages," the representative of Premier Energy concludes, Agerpres informs.