President of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) Niculae Havrilet said that the Authority will revoke the electricity supply license of another three or four companies that have caused problems in the market in January, during the cold spell which significantly increased electricity consumption in the country.
The electricity prices on the spot market in January increased significantly, reaching the historical record of over 143 euros/MWh near the end of the month, which was almost double the price compared to the beginning of January 2017. ANRE immediately launched an investigation in order to find the causes that led to this situation.
Also, several electricity traders have terminated their supply contracts with consumers in order to sell electricity on the spot market at much higher prices. Havrilet said that the Authority has completed several control, investigations and finally reached a conclusion that some traders have acted wrongly, endangering contracts with major consumers, generating cost elements for network operators and end suppliers, adding that these traders were fined, while some also saw the revocation of their licenses. In total, ANRE found seven or eight suppliers that generated total losses of almost 97 million euros in January 2017.
In mid February, ANRE has approved the revocation of electricity supply licenses for Arelco Energy and Arelco Power due to misconduct in the electricity market. The statement from ANRE said that through a letter addressed to ANRE in late January, the administrator of Arelco Power has advised that the company is unable to perform its objective of delivering electricity to the final consumers, given the conditions and developments on the electricity market, and requested that ANRE ensures the uptake of the consumer places of its final consumers by the suppliers of last resort. Similar letter from Arelco energy was received a few days later.
ANRE found that there were no applicable legal/ contractual conditions for the termination of the supply contract concluded by these companies with the final consumers, in order to make it possible that those final consumer to be taken over by suppliers of last resort. Thus, given the inability of these companies to continue the supply of electricity to their final consumers, ANRE has approved the revocation of the licenses for electricity supply of the two companies.
