“The impact on end consumers will be between 2% and 4%, as already announced by the energy watchdog ANRE,” said Adrian Borotea, a director with CEZ Romania.
Romania has implemented an incentive scheme supporting renewable energy in 2004, when it opted for a mandatory quota system combined with the trading of green certificates.
Four years later, an improved incentive scheme was regulated through law 220/2008. A secondary legislation for the application of law 220/2008 was drafted in 2010, after consultations with European Commission staff. The new legislation will be implemented as of September.
CEZ Romania has not requested an increase in tariffs yet, but it is long overdue, Borotea said. He added the best moment to hike prices would be in January 2012.
According to ANRE estimations, Romanian consumers are bound to pay 1.3 billion lei (EUR307 million) this year to support the country’s renewable energy scheme.
In September, the value of the monthly bill is estimated to increase by up to 3.5%.
Under the green certificates system, each renewable energy producer is granted a number of green certificates for power fed into the electricity grid. Energy suppliers, who are forced by law to buy the certificates, will try to compensate their costs by including them in the bills of end consumers, thus leading to price increases. (EUR1=RON4.2236)