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The liberalization of the energy market is a very important fact and ANRE was forced to actively participate in informing the public. It should have been the central actor in this process, especially because by law, ANRE also has the role of informing and protecting consumers.
This did not happen. On the contrary, he refused until the last days to communicate on this subject. In addition, it favored large providers by not requiring them to effectively inform customers that liberalization will take place and that those who do not enter into free market contracts will continue in universal service, at much higher prices. higher than those in the competitive area. Consumers now in the regulated regime have not been told that they will automatically switch to universal service, at prices up to 26% higher than in December, if they do not go to the free market.
The most disadvantaged by this situation are the people who do not have access to information from the online press that has recently drawn attention to irregularities related to liberalization. These people are generally the most vulnerable, with low income.
But how did you get here? – A story that shows inefficiency or reluctance
HotNews.ro drew attention three weeks ago that all domestic consumers are ignored just at a key moment, such as the liberalization of the electricity market. A study by the Intelligent Energy Association showed that only 10% of consumers knew at the time that the market was going to be liberalized as of January 1 and that they should look for advantageous offers.
ANRE should have posted on its website and mediated recommendations for the domestic customer, printed and distributed brochures long before the time of liberalization, which it did not do.
At the insistence of HotNews.ro and not only, ANRE agreed to publish, on December 15, on its own website, some recommendations for the domestic customer, although they were already elaborated a long time ago. ANRE did not announce in a press release that it had published these recommendations, but instead let each interested party find out for themselves.
Just a few days after the liberalization, the information explodes that as of January 1, the prices of universal service, offered by providers of last resort, that is ENEL, CEZ, Eléctrica, E.ON, will increase massively, and those who failed to conclude free market contracts will pay much higher bills. Of course, ANRE did not send information related to the increase in prices for universal service. It did not warn consumers in any way that they would pay inflated bills from January if they did not quickly sign a contract on the free market. ANRE simply behaves as if it had no powers related to consumers, working only for the benefit of large suppliers.
The only release on liberalization, recently sent by ANRE, is on Christmas Eve. Nor is it for effective consumer information. On the contrary, it benefits the provider. In a statement on Christmas Eve, ANRE announced that providers of last resort, that is, those they diligently protect, have the obligation “to send customers at home the universal service offer and at least one competitive offer, both during December 2020 as well as January 2021 “.
In the immediate aftermath of Christmas, these vendors began sending customers universal service offers, putting only the option to contract competitively last.
Instead of being forced to send customers competitive offers and with them the prices of the universal service, the providers do the opposite: they send offers of universal service, that is, high price, and with them offers in the free market, at prices competitive.
Many domestic customers have probably already received these offers. How does it look? Pricing for universal services comes first and foremost, even leaving you the option of choosing another provider of last resort for universal services. Only at the end do I remember competitive offers.
Last resort providers should be the exception, not the rule. That is, to receive energy from a supplier of last resort only in exceptional situations, for example when your supplier suddenly goes bankrupt and you did not have the opportunity to move to another company. That is why the price of universal service may be higher, but it should not be accepted for long. That is, more than a month, for example.
ANRE – an institution run by a former unionist who controlled businesses with meters
ANRE has a completely politicized leadership, which could be the explanation for its inefficiency. The current president, Dumitru Chiriță, did not stand out with anything special during his term, which he has held since October 2017. Now, in his term, a special event such as liberalization is handled disastrously.
Dumitru Chiriță is paid for the effort of being president of ANRE with more than 56 thousand lei / month, one of the highest salaries in Romania.
Before coming to this position, he was a PSD deputy. He was already in his fourth term.
Chiriță started his career in 1981 as an electrician. Before being a deputy, he was vice president of the National Union Bloc. In the period 1990-2000 he was president of the National Federation of Unions of Electricity “Univers”, and in the period 1990-2011 president of the Free Independent Union “Energy”.
In 2011, Clean Romania wrote that Dumitru Chirita was a shareholder in SC Sindserv SA, a company controlled by Millennium Energy Federation III, which read electricity meters and benefited from the lucrative contracts of Electrica SA. “The PSD deputy is considered the ‘brain’ of the entire business run by the two companies. He was a minority shareholder in Sindserv, president of the Free Independent Energy Union Energia București, which owns shares in the company, executive president of the Universitat Federation , another shareholder of the company and former member on the Board of Directors of SC Electrica SA, “wrote Clean Romania.
Chiriță’s term is five years. I mean, he has two more years in office. ANRE’s management is appointed by Parliament. Faced with this scandal, at the beginning of next year, the current Parliament could hold ANRE responsible. USR deputy Cristina Prună announced that she will do everything possible for ANRE to offer explanations in Parliament.
Likewise, the Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, says that he spoke with the president of the Competition Council to verify the way in which prices were increased in the universal service market.
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