Romanians pay mainly for power losses

“Out of the $2.5bn representing Romania’s energy bill, three quarters are just money down the drain,” Western energy specialists warn their Romanian peers, says Corneliu Radulescu, deputy general manager of the Romanian Energy Preservation Agency (ARCE).

Thermal energy consumption per flat in Romania is 60% higher than the European average, although the revenues are 10-15 times lower, according to the above-quoted source.

“95% of our investments were directed to the production, distribution and transport sector, while the end energy user was not helped to eliminate losses and energy waste,” Radulescu explained.

An important problem on the energy specialists’ hands is the lack of “real time” market information. Specialists use the data provided by the Statistical Yearbook and the energy balance issued by the National Economic Studies and Sciences Institute (INSSE), which are only general and do little to quench the thirst for specialised information from all energy industry segments.

For instance, the latest values of the energy parameters released by INSSE are those registered in 1999, whereas Hungary has a specialised agency monitoring the energy market and providing up-to-the minute market data.

ARCE representatives say that whereas Romania’s quantity indices can stand competition with those in developed countries, the quality index ratio is 1 to 3, as Romania has no indicators to show the efficiency of energy consumption. Such an index is the energy intensity, that is the ratio of the annual energy consumption and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).