ACUE: Eliminating the gas cap is inevitable

Energy distributors support the elimination, from April 1, 2026, of the price cap on natural gas, but point out that, in order to reduce the impact of undesirable developments on the wholesale market, solutions must be found to protect consumers, said Daniela Dărăban, executive director of the Association of Energy Utilities Companies (ACUE), yesterday, at an informal meeting with the media.

Daniela Dărăban stated: "From our point of view, the cap must be eliminated. We believe in the beneficial effects of the free market, but we believe that the exit from the cap must be planned very well. Unlike electricity, the exit from the cap for natural gas will be made in the warm season, so when the bills, at least for household customers, are the lowest. But this does not mean that some unwanted developments on the wholesale market in terms of price would not subsequently influence the final gas price, so the bill price in the cold season. Therefore, we believe that the exit from the cap must be thought out. We believe that a solution would be to, for a limited period of time, return to the gas release program, but we are also open to other solutions that can ensure the smoothest possible price evolution in the wholesale area.”

The executive director of ACUE stated that he cannot estimate how much the natural gas bill will increase starting April 1st - unlike the Romanian Energy Suppliers Association which recently indicated that the increase will be 5% of the current value of the bill - because he has no visibility on the purchases that will be from April 1st, 2026.

"I think it is really difficult to make an estimate on the price impact at this time, especially since there are no transactions for the period after April 2026. If I do not have visibility on the wholesale price, a price that represents 60% of the customer's final bill, that is, I do not know what the actual purchase price of each supplier is, I cannot estimate what the final price is. This is the reason why we say that there must be discussions and a plan. A plan made today can help us have visibility after March 2026. We are not aware that there is such a plan at ANRE or the Ministry of Energy. There have been no discussions with the authorities on this subject. There have been no concrete discussions on developments in the gas market post-April 2026, at least with us,” added Daniela Dărăban.

The ACUE representative explained what the gas release system that suppliers and distributors want to see applied after the reliberalization of the natural gas market means: "Gas release is a program of visibility on the available quantities and packages available at the supply level, on the wholesale market. It is not an imposed price, it is about visibility on availability. There is this problem, when you do not know if you can find gas and you can purchase at a higher price. The gas release solution means removing the hazard regarding the lack of natural gas in the market at a certain moment. For the end consumer, this means greater control over the price and an easier bill to bear. So, in addition to all this thinking and planning regarding the exit from the ceiling, we also need to see what solutions we have to avoid price spikes on the market, because that is what we are talking about. Then, I think we need to improve a bit and ensure that the direct aid scheme works optimally for those who need support at the consumer level.”

• Problems regarding vulnerable consumers

Regarding consumers who need support, vulnerable consumers, Daniela Dărăban mentioned that, regarding the 50 lei vouchers for the energy bill that the state grants to them through the Ministry of Labor, problems have arisen regarding the payment of the respective amounts.

"At the moment, there are less than 1 million vulnerable consumers registered on the platform, although the estimate was that there were 1.5 million such consumers in our country. If this attempt to mobilize vulnerable consumers to register on the platform had fallen to the suppliers, we would have been checked very carefully by the authorities for fulfilling that obligation. So, while public institutions have to deal with it, we do not know what is happening. There are people who need to be advised and supported to register on this platform in order to obtain state aid for paying their energy bills. The platform that STS has made is a big step forward, but what is missing is a clear definition of the vulnerable consumer, which should not only be linked to their income, but should take into account several elements, including the share of assets that should be declared. For example, if you receive unemployment benefits, but have three real estate properties, you should not qualify to receive the voucher for the energy bill payment support. We want to develop the platform and support consumers in registering on this platform. City halls have social departments, with a clear record of people who benefit from social assistance. We believe that the respective people should be helped by the city halls to register on the respective platform, because the way in which the aid granted by the state is actually implemented is a problem”, said Daniela Dărăban.

The executive director of ACUE showed that, at the moment, there are problems with the payment of vouchers to vulnerable consumers and believes that a debate on this topic is necessary between the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Energy and the Romanian Post.

Daniela Dărăban specified: "The problem is social pressure. If a person has an income of 1900 lei and has to pay 90 lei for the energy bill, although 50 of the 90 lei must be paid by the state, and the respective money does not reach him, then it is serious. We hope that at the end of February-March, in direct discussions with the authorities regarding the vulnerable natural gas consumer, we will have a discussion with the Romanian Post about the above aspects. To solve this problem, we proposed the following solution: social food cards should include energy suppliers as beneficiaries of payments made with them, so that the respective vulnerable consumers can pay their bills through those cards”.

• Arrears in the state settlement of the capping-compensation scheme

The ACUE representative mentioned that, regarding the reliberalization of the electricity market, on July 1, 2025, there were 5 million customers (59.8% of all customers in the electricity market) who paid an average monthly bill of 35 lei, i.e. an average consumption of 52 kilowatt-hours (kwh), approximately 3 million customers (35.9% of all customers) who paid an average monthly bill of 144 lei (average consumption of 182 kwh) and 354,377 customers (4.2% of all customers) whose average monthly bill amounted to 694 lei (average consumption of 534 kWh),

Regarding the outstanding settlements that the state has with suppliers on the capping-compensation scheme for electricity that expired on July 1, 2025, their value amounts to 8.3 billion lei, and for natural gas under one billion lei. ACUE representatives stated that in the last four months the settlement rate was about 40 or 50 million lei per month, but in the last week of November ANRE announced the settlement for the 7 days of only 2 million lei.

We recall that a week ago, representatives of the Association of Electricity and Natural Gas Suppliers of Romania (AFEER) announced that the settlement by the state of the subsidy under the capping-compensation scheme stopped in the first quarter of 2024. They showed that the total arrears for energy bills issued until July 1, 2025 amounts to over one billion euros - only for energy electricity, to which is added the subsidy granted for natural gas.

According to AFEER representatives, the settlement speed is very slow, due to bureaucracy, which delays the process a lot, and they specified that the respective arrears lead to increased costs for suppliers, in terms of the relationship with the banking system. Suppliers took out loans for the period in which they supported the support schemes, and those loans generate interest costs, and until the debt is extinguished, additional costs will accumulate, i.e. amounts that could have been invested by suppliers in development and innovation. AFEER members mentioned that those costs are not passed on to customers, but are borne by companies only to support the maintenance of these credits that suppliers took from banks, and they said that it is about interests of tens of millions of euros, which suppliers continue to pay.