Romania’s energy market watchdog ANRE says the appetite of telecoms for energy is justified because both businesses require direct interaction with millions of consumers.
“Regarding the opportunity to enter the local energy market, Telekom Romania will take the legal actions required. We are analyzing the local energy market and will devise our plans in line with the regulations in force set by ANRE and the strategy of the group we are part of. Telekom Romania will reveal its plans for this segment at the right time,” company officials said.
Telekom Romania said at the end of March it had taken all the legal steps required to enter the energy market.
ANRE, however, says no application for a power supply license had been filed for Telekom Romania by the end of June. The other telecoms had not applied for supply licenses by that time, either.
“Only RCS&RDS has a license to supply electricity, License no. 1210/17.04.2013. On June 30, 2015, the other economic operators mentioned (Telekom Romania, Vodafone Romania, Orange Romania, UPC Romania i.e.) had no electricity supply license applications filed,” ANRE officials said.
A potential entry of Telekom on the local energy market would be in line with the direction of the group. Telekom has expanded to energy efficiency, smart networks and smart metering of household consumers. Implementation of the smart meter in Romania will begin next year, as about 80% of the households in the country should have one by 2020. Total investment should amount to EUR700 million.
RCS&RDS has not only got an electricity supply license, it also expanded into green power generation via a number of solar parks. RCS&RDS has recently said it also intends to enter the distribution segment, which means it will have to build its separate distribution network in Oradea.
Oradea is where the founder of RCS&RDS, Zoltan Teszari, is based. The distributor in Oradea is Electrica Distributie Transilvania Nord, a company part of the Electrica group.
“Most economic operators providing services to a significant number of customers are looking to diversify their range of services and electricity supply may be one such option,” ANRE said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)