The regulator’s investigation against electricity producer Hidroelectrica should be completed in early 2021, which will result in better functioning of the day-ahead market, said Chairman of the Competition Council Bogdan Chiritoiu.
At the same time, Chiritoiu that the regulator is analyzing the opportunity to investigate the situation of the cogeneration subsidies in the electricity generaton sector in 2021.
In September 2018, the Competition Council has opened an investigation on a possible abuse of dominant position by state-owned electricity producer Hidroelectrica. The regulator suspected that the company limited the quantity of electricity sold on some segments of the energy market, particularly on the day-ahead delivery market segment, to get higher prices on the balancing market segment, which covers the electricity deficit in the network. The investigation started after recent high price fluctuations on the electricity market. Chiritoiu said in 2018 that consumers have not felt the impact of this Hidroelectrica’s behavior so far, but the suppliers are those who registered losses. However, suppliers could not have taken over all the losses, some of them even had serious problems, and in time they would have started to transfer some of these losses on consumers’ behalf.
