RCS&RDS held 3.58% of the competitive market, the segment of those that decided to change suppliers, at the end of first nine months of 2016, according to a report of the energy market watchdog ANRE. The reports on the competitive energy market in the year-earlier period did not even mention it.
This market share puts RCS&RDS ahead of more established companies like Enel Energie Muntenia, which had 3.49% at the end of September 2016, and ENGIE Romania, the former GDF SUEZ Energy Romania, which ended the first nine months of last year with 2.28% market share.
Traditional energy companies are well positioned on the household consumer segment, but have been less nimble on the competitive segment, where they lost clients to competitors like Tinmar group or RCS&RDS.
ANRE data show RCS&RDS sold 884 GWh of power to its clients in January-September or 2.3% of the national consumption. Taking into account the prices on the OPCOM energy exchange in the first nine months of last year, RCS&RDS sold more than EUR27 million worth of electricity. The amount does not include taxes, excise duties or transmission costs.
The rise of an outsider such as RCS&RDS in a very closed industry shows the profound changes the energy market is undergoing, as it no longer is dominated by major utilities groups, but also a place for telecom companies for instance.
Digi Energy website data show a surge in the number of clients from merely 22 household consumers at the end of the first half of 2015 to more than 6,700 at the end of the first half of 2016. Moreover, the number of small commercial clients stood at 18,761 in mid last year from 6,682 at the end of the first half of 2015. It also had 277 large commercial clients at the end of the first half of 2016.
The number of power consumers in Romania has remained relatively constant in the past three years, as the decline in the non-household consumer segment was offset by the upward trend on the household consumer segment.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)