According to the analysis of the Romanian Competition Council, customers’ connection requests to electricity networks increase by 31 % in the first half of 2021 and those to natural gas networks by 170 %. However, energy distributors were unable to keep up with such high demand.
In the case of electricity, while the number of connection requests received by distribution operators in the first half of 2021 from household customers increased by 31 % compared to the first half of 2020, the number of places of consumption increased by only 1.4 %.
In the case of natural gas, the number of connection requests sent by household customers increased by about 170 % in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period in 2020, while the number of consumption places registered an advance of only 3.6 %.
In the second half of 2020, the primary legislative framework on the process of connection to electricity and gas distribution networks and
systems underwent significant changes, with the electricity or gas distribution operator having the obligation to connect all household final customer applicants within 90 days from the date of obtaining the building permit, with the recovery of connection costs in a period of 5 years. These changes were followed by the ANRE issuance of the secondary legislation, in the first quarter of 2021.
Following the analysis, it turned out that if the legislation would allow local public authorities to fully finance the development of electricity and natural gas distribution networks and systems, the grid connection activity could be boosted. As a result, the Competition Council recommends adapting the legislation to allow local authorities to fully fund network development work.
