Hidroelectrica To Increase Price Of Energy Delivered Directly To Private Suppliers

The management of Hidroelectrica on Friday announced they had not extended any direct energy sale contract with the private suppliers. "According to Order no. 445 of the Minister of Economy, we could not do so anyway, without the Ministry"s explicit agreement. The rumours about the extension of the contracts started when we started to negotiate the energy sale contracts. By negotiation, I mean the increase of the sale price stipulated in the bilateral contracts that were negotiated directly in the past years," said Hidroelectrica General Manager Mihai David wrote in a press release.

He explained that the company"s intention to re-negotiate the directly negotiated contracts in order to increase the price was linked to a plan to increase revenues and sustain the plan for investment, modernization and increase in production capacity, especially considering the current crisis. The order of the Ministry of Economy which Mihai David referred to compels State-controlled energy producers to sell energy transparently, on the OPCOM markets.

For several years, Hidroelectrica has not sold any energy on the Centralized Market for Bilateral Contracts (PCCB), where long-term contracts are closed transparently. This is because the company had signed contracts directly with the suppliers before the introduction of the obligation to trade available energy on the energy market.

Since 2005, Hidroelectrica has ensured approximately one third of the consumption requirements of the regulated market, while having traded 8-10% of the output on the spot market. The remaining production is delivered to the holders of the directly negotiated contracts, which will expire in 2012.