The liberalization of the gas market from 1 July is joined by the obligation for the producers to sell as a percentage of their production on the local gas exchanges, which will increase the dynamics of the market, especially for suppliers. Even if the Baumgarten reference does not include transport tariffs and is therefore not very illustrative for the local market, tying the local prices in part to the CEGH price is imposed by an order issued by ANRE.
“In addition to the price, we need to see what other services the respective provider can offer… I am convinced that the providers will come with new offers, bundled. I expect to see providers that have not been in the market so far, including providers of other utilities. In the coming years, a new type of job will appear – the agent who sells utility packages at households’ doors. But for that you have to know how to communicate with household consumers,” says Silvia Vlăsceanu, executive director, ACUE.
“Suppliers are asked to make offers for a one year period. This does not mean that a household consumer cannot change the supplier at any time. No household customer will be tied to a supplier,” she explained at EnergynomicsTalks.
The household consumer already has the possibility to move to another supplier at 21 days from the date of the request, and this will not change from July 1, when the liberalization of the gas market takes place. At the same time, suppliers have the possibility to negotiate their contracts, and household consumers can move to a free market supplier, from a regulated one.
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“Industrial customers track their contracts and know how to negotiate them. If we refer strictly to the population, to over 3 million household consumers, you cannot claim that from July 1 everyone will start moving from one supplier to another, for various reasons: lack of information, convenience, a history and a relationship over time with the same supplier, payment channels provided by a supplier, there are many elements,” says Vlăsceanu.
“Suppliers are beginning to diversify their offers. They also use advertising services, attracting customers with various offers – in addition to natural gas, they also come with electricity services and other various offers. After all, it is not the population that is to blame for not changing its suppliers, but they must know how to attract their own customers.”
EnergynomicsTalks is an editorial product launched by the Energynomics communication platform aiming at encouraging a constant professional dialogue in the Romanian energy community during the state of emergency and amid the restrictions imposed by social distancing approach.
