The company had hoped to sell 921,805 megawatt-hours of electricity via 15 auctions, but it only received offers for 87,600 MWh.
The buyers, GDF SUEZ Energy Romania and E.ON Energie Romania, will pay between 200.4 lei (EUR44.2) per MWh and RON221.2 per MWh. The electricity will be delivered in 2013, Hidroelectrica said.
Hidroelectrica cancelled four out of six auctions Tuesday and another seven tenders scheduled for Wednesday.
“It wasn’t a failure on our part,” Hidroelectrica’s special administrator, Remus Vulpescu, told Mediafax. “We were just trying out the market.”
Vulpescu said Hidroelectrica has asked for a 50% down payment on all electricity deals, an “atypical demand” on the energy exchange, which stemmed from the company’s need to complete its insolvency procedure “as soon as possible.”
Hidroelectrica will resume the auctions next week with different prices and different requirements, he added.
“It is clear now that we need to lower our asking price if we want a bigger down payment. Conversely, we could ask for 10% to 25% smaller down payments,” Vulpescu said.
State-run hydropower generator Hidrolectrica has filed for insolvency in June this year and is currently undergoing reorganization.