Tube running on private energy

Grivco SA, owned by businessman Dan Voiculescu, will supply 260bn ROL’s (over $8 million) worth in electrical power to Metrorex SA for a year effective this fall.

The electrical power supplier won the tender the Romanian Commodities Exchange (RCE) organised last week for Metrorex Regie Autonome to buy electrical power. Grivco was the only one to submit a bid, although two other companies – Electrocentrale Turceni and SC Tofan Servicii ENERGETICE SRL, had bought the documentation detailing the specifications of the job.

The buy/sell transactions brokered by the Romanian Commodities Exchange for Petrom or Metrorex since early this year, which reached as high as tens or hundreds of millions of dollars at times, brought a series of traders such as Kronos, Glencore, Vitol or even Grivco into the spotlight. These traders actually broker the deliveries to the beneficiaries, as they themselves buy from other traders or producers.

“The Metrorex contract will come into force throughout September 1-15 and be valid for a year. The energy amount bought represents 160,000 MWh worth 260bn ROL and is supplied by Bulgarian energy trader NEK”, Grivco sources told Ziarul Financiar. The imported energy price is of about $50/MWh in this case.

The energy amount the tube operator Metrorex Bucharest bought is needed for the 50 trains covering the Romanian Capital routes to function. The National Authority for Electrical and Thermal Energy Regulation accredited Metrorex as an eligible consumer, which allows it to buy electricity at a negotiated price from any producer or supplier on the energy market. adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro