After a slight increase in energy consumption in the first month of this year, by just over 1%, the first three weeks of February brought about a new decline in consumption of electricity, with Transelectrica data (the Romanian national grid company) indicating an around 5% decline against February 2009.
Energy transmission and supply companies say no recovery is noticeable in the industrial sector, where the biggest declines in consumption were recorded last year.
“I think we can talk about a stagnation compared with the beginning of last year. No rebound was felt on the segment of big consumers (…),” says Ioan Silvas, energy sale manager within Electrica, one of the leading players on the energy market, which expects around 1.2 billion euros in turnover for this year.
Electricity consumption became one of the most efficient indicators of the economic progression after the Romanian president deemed its progression even more reliable than forecasts of economic analysts.