Romania currently has the highest electricity price in all of Europe, but with the right investments, it can decrease significantly, declared on Tuesday the general manager of E.ON Romania, Volker Raffel, in a specialized conference.

“When we talk about electricity, Romania, although it currently has the best potential to be the country with the lowest energy price, unfortunately has the highest electricity price in all of Europe. At wholesale prices and, when it comes to prices for households, the total price is about 30 cents per kw/h, while in Germany it is 38 – 39 cents per kw/h, but compared to purchasing power, the 30 cents still remain a fairly high price. So, the price of electricity is a problem and, if we talk about more efficiency and better solutions for Europe, about less dependence and less fuel imports and so on, we are talking about electrification. A high price of electricity, of course, does not help if we want to electrify. The good news is that, soon, we will publish a study that shows that the price of energy, the price of electricity will decrease significantly, provided that we make the right investments,” he said. Raffel, quoted by Agerpres.

He said that the gas-fired power plants under construction must be put into operation.

“The right investments mean photovoltaics, storage, buildings, and more production, maybe one day in nuclear, but this is a very long-term objective. At the very least, however, the gas-fired power plants under construction must be put into operation. There is a chance that we will have a larger offer, but everything that I have described must be connected to the grid,” added Raffel.

The E.ON Romania representative believes that this current energy crisis could diminish over the next year, now being the right time to promote efficiency programs.

“Currently, the grid is starting to become like a “bottleneck” for the development of the Romanian economy, if the development of the grids that we partially operate is not unblocked. This is a discussion that we are having and it is one of the reasons why we really hope that the Government will return to office so that we can talk to someone who addresses the problem. There is an urgent pressure to make investments. At the moment, this is only partially happening in Romania, but we are just seeing the beginning of data centers, we are just seeing the beginning of electric mobility and fuel prices. We are just at the beginning of investments in batteries, of prosumers. Prosumers are not at the beginning, but all the other things that I have described are coming and that is why we need something. We are currently in a very severe energy crisis and I think it will decrease over the next year, but now is the absolutely right time to promote efficiency programs, because the potential and the pressure are on the market”, said Volker Raffel.

Regarding gas production, the official mentioned that Romania produces “about as much gas as it consumes”.

“It is quite balanced, and next year most likely, Neptun Deep will enter production and then Romania’s gas production will double the local demand, so it will start exporting and, hopefully, using some of it for more economic activity in Romania. So, for gas, we will see a relaxation on the supply side. You have to keep in mind that, currently, gas costs in Europe somewhere around 70 euros per megawatt/hour, but we deliver it to household customers at a price of 24 euros per megawatt/hour, because this is the current legal regulation, which tells producers that they have to sell us the gas that we deliver to households at a price of 24 euros. I cannot predict what the political decision will be, because the current scheme ends in March, next year (…) Subsidizing energy consumption is something that should at least be reduced over time (…) I think energy prices will stabilize somehow, I suspect. We, as an energy supplier, do not just want to “We earn money by selling gas or electricity, we also want to participate in the implementation of energy efficiency measures, because we all know that the cheapest thing in the world is not to consume at all,” Raffel emphasized.