The Romanian Parliament is debating the government’s emergency ordinance that extends the measure of capping and compensating for energy bills until August 2023. The ordinance also provides for overtaxing energy companies and fining those that speculate on the crisis in the field through successive sales and resales. These latter measures are contested by the business environment and the opposition. All in all, it is clear that the document will undergo adjustments in Parliament.
The governing coalition made up of the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party and the Democratic Union of Ethic Hungarians in Romania (PSD – PNL – UDMR) analyzed possible changes to the ordinance that regulates prices on the energy market and the introduction of new support schemes, including to stimulate saving, as requested by the European Commission. Talks will continue next week. In order to reduce energy waste, the coalition leaders agreed that the Environment Ministry should come up with a proposal to replace filament light bulbs with economical ones as part of a scrappage program, similar to that already in place for household appliances and cars. The measure is also targeted to domestic consumers.
On the other hand, the Ministry of Waters and Forests must put together a project for capping the price of firewood for a period of 6 months. In parallel, the export of firewood and derived products for heating could be temporarily limited, both inside and outside the EU. Prior to these discussions, the energy minister, Virgil Popescu, recommended consumers to look for suppliers on the electricity market that offer them the lowest prices. He says that the Government is considering offering bonuses to those who will manage to save energy. According to the energy minister, 90% of the population consumes less than 300 kilowatts, therefore they will benefit from the bill capping measure.
The ordinance stipulates that a fixed price will be paid for the first 255 kilowatts consumed, and the difference up to 300 kilowatts will be charged with the price stipulated in the contract. In the case of natural gas, capping is applied regardless of consumption. Regarding the reduction of energy consumption in public institutions, minister Virgil Popescu said that each ministry come up with its own plan and take the necessary measures. Some public institutions, big electricity consumers, have already implemented measures to reduce wasting. Thus, at the huge Parliament Palace, one of the largest administrative buildings in the world, insulation for thermal purposes of some areas of the building will be undertaken, the interior lighting sources will be replaced with LED sources and the exterior lighting will be reduced by 50%. At the same time, the festive lighting of the facade was reduced to two hours. (LS)
