The suppliers claim that there is a lack of liquidity in the market, and the prices are high because they follow the trajectories drawn by the producers, several sources told Energynomics.

On Wednesday, Bogdan Badea, chairman of Hidroelectrica’s board of directors, said that home customers’ energy suppliers refuse to enter into long-term contracts with producers at lower prices, and prefer to buy from high-end, high-speculative, short-term stock exchange platforms, according to Agerpres.

“Buyers are traders who speculate on any variation in the DAM and sell it to suppliers,” the Hidroelectrica official said.

On Wednesday, on the Market for the Next Day (DAM), the energy price rose to over 1,565 lei / MWh, for the off-peak time interval 20-21.00h, according to OPCOM data consulted by Energynomics. At the same time, on the PCCB-LE market (term), CE Oltenia sells energy in the band at over 1,100 lei / MWh, for the next year.

“I do not want to comment on Mr. Badea’s statements, and the truth has many faces at the moment. Certainly, the market is very complex. There is a lack of liquidity in the market,” a supplier told Energynomics.

Badea was heard in the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the price of energy.

“Hidroelectrica has always put energy into trading. Unfortunately, for many years we have been observing a phenomenon: large suppliers, those with many customers, do not buy that energy and go to speculative DAM-type markets (day ahead market – no.), where the prices are extremely high. This is in the conditions in which this energy could be purchased in time, at much lower prices,” Badea said.

He pointed out that the cheaper energy, which Hidroelectrica sells in the long run, is bought by traders who then sell it more expensively in the DAM.

“Buyers are the traders who speculate on any variation in the DAM and sell it to suppliers,” the Hidroelectrica official said.

Badea specified that tenders were canceled by which Hidroelectrica wanted to sell 4.55 TWh of energy with delivery in 2021, because no one came to buy these quantities, given that the average price of this energy was of 255 lei per MWh. For comparison, the price of these days in DAM exceeds 1,000 lei per MWh.

“If this quantity had been bought for final consumers, perhaps there would not have been such a large variation at the final consumer this year,” he added.