No "blackout" risk insurance in Romania

Should a massive blackout occur in Romania, almost no company could resort to an insurer to recoup the damages caused by the electricity outage (data losses, delivery delays or breaks in the production process). Most Romanian firms do not own such policies, according to Cristian Fugaciu, general manager of Marsh Romania, a branch of the world’s largest insurance broker. “Since suppliers are state-owned companies monopolising this sector and the degree to which installations are secure is unknown, insurance companies do not cover this risk of electrical power outage. The systems are old, the risk is difficult to assess and therefore companies cannot protect themselves against this type of risk, even though they should be willing to,” Fugaciu explains. There are however certain insurance programmes aimed at large electricity consumers, which cover this risk, but they include causes mentioned within a classical property policy: earthquake, fire or explosion, and not causes the supplying company can be charged with, the Marsh manager also said. ZF