EFT ENERGONEWS 20.05.2013

1. DOMESTIC MEDIA

2. ANRE, Transelectrica, OPCOM useful information

1.1. A. Electricity

A NEW STRIKE FOR RENEWABLE SOURCES

Small producers of green energy charged for imbalances

Transelectrica sources sustain that the energy system records a very high demand for

connection to the distribution and transportation network of wind power plants and photovoltaic

plants with an installed power less than 10 MW each. As such plants would contribute with a

power of more than 1000 MW installed in the system, with a volatile operation, Transelectrica

requested the market regulator (ANRE) to include the solar farms and wind farms with an

installed power between 5 and 10 MW in the dispatchable units.

Therefore, such farms shall be responsible for the imbalances brought to the system. At this

moment, ANRE debates this request, the quoted sources sustain. BURSA newspaper has

recently published, in exclusivity, the information that the wind power plants could be penalized

for the imbalances brought to the energetic system. Our energetic system has difficulties in

balancing the volatile output of wind power plants (approximately 2.000 installed MW operational

now). Considering the major decrease of the energy demand and the higher production of wind

energy of the past months, the coal plants “set their sail to every wind”, having great costs

generated by often stops and starts of great groups within Oltenia Complex (Turceni, Rovinari,

Craiova). Nuclearelectrica and Hidroelectrica also met difficulties at selling the energy lately.

In this context, the Executive has analyzed and wishes to discuss with ANRE several options

for changing the rules on the Energy Balancing Market, so that the groups causing such

imbalances should be penalized.

Our sources state that an option would be that the wind power plants no longer receive green

certificates for the energy produced in addition to the forecasted quantity and notified to the

National Dispatcher, and the minimum admitted price for daily offers on the Balancing Market

managed by Transelectrica would be unique for all producers, not differentiated per types of

resources. This measure, corroborated with the decrease of the validity of green certificates from

16 to 6 months, would lead, according to the documents discussed by the Government, to a

decrease of one third of the number of certificates issued and to a decrease by approximately

50% of the certificates’ trading price.

Another option that would lead to the decrease of costs borne by consumers for the

payment of green certificates would involve the change of plants’ stopping rules when production

is too high. Therefore, the Energetic Dispatcher could discharge those causing imbalances

(especially caused by wind power plants) instead of stopping the units depending on the

minimum admitted price, as the Balancing Market currently operates.

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The minister Vosganian does swop. Investments against green certificates

Great energy consumer industries could benefit from easements as concerns the price paid for

electricity, but on one condition – to invest in Romania. The business would be interesting for

producers, because the electric power bills have increased significantly due to the charges for

green energy.

„ArcelorMittal Galaţi, Alro Slatina and Feral Tulcea could benefit from easements as concerns the

final price paid for energy, as concerns the distribution, cogeneration charge and impact of green

certificates on invoices, if they make important investments”, stated the minister of Economy,

Varujan Vosganian, on Wednesday, during a conference on nuclear energy, informs Agerpres.

„We have met with ArcelorMittal, Alro, Feral, who reached the conclusion that we should be

discussing on the cogeneration charge and on the impact of green certificates as concerns the

final price of electric power, as well as in the status of distribution networks. There are certain

companies activating in the heavy industry that requested easements for distribution,

cogeneration and green certificates, promising consistent investments. We made progresses

with ArcelorMittal and Feral, they could bring powerful investments”, stated Varujan Vosganian.

State preoccupations

The Romanian authorities analyze the impact of the measure of eliminating the cogeneration

charge from the electric power bill, this being applied only to units whose production is not at high

efficiency standards, recently stated the delegated minister for Energy, Constantin Niţă.

At that moment, the vice-president of the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority, Emil Calotă,

pointed out that the Authority shall issue a monitoring methodology in order to grant the bonus to

producers of cogeneration energy based on orders of merit, and a decrease of the invoice for the

final consumer, after reducing the amounts to be paid for such type of energy shall be sensed as

of the beginning of the year 2014. Calotă mentioned that the cogeneration energy’s percentage

of the final invoice is of 5%.

Exclusive: Why is ANRE forced to mop up the Government?

ANRE order, which shall amend the rules of the balancing market and supplements the GD

138/2013, had no reaction from the market players. Even if the concerned Order is in public

debate, nobody, at least according to our information, brought any suggestions. It is still an

enigma how this passivity state can be explained, if the changes influence several energy

producers and not only the two energetic complexes. It is most probable that strings are being

pulled, so that one hand washes the other and the operations mystery on the balancing market

be well kept.

Energy-Center is the only publication that tried to point out that ANRE intervention on the energy

market is a forced one, determined by the extremely powerful pressures of the miners in Oltenia

Basin (belonging to CE Oltenia), sustained by powerful political men. And, as nobody should

understand anything, and ANRE independence should not seem influenced, the Order project

publicly debated is an amalgam of sentences that maximize confusion. All we have to

understand is that this Order is to justify the enforcement of GD 138/2013, on the priority access

within the system of Energetic Complexes Oltenia and Hunedoara.

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We will prove below that ANRE Order, which is still under public debate, is a simple fake and that

it was not necessary in order to sustain the two energetic complexes.

* ANRE Order, which is under public debate, seems to be an initiative to amend the secondary

law which lacks relevance as long as GD 138/2013 has at least the same legal power as ANRE

orders. Moreover, ANRE repeated in its project a part of the provisions of GD 138, which

breaches the discipline in regulations’ issue. On the other hand, ANRE included provisions that

reason into the “safety of electric power supply”, which is not its liability, but which is provided in

the legal obligations of the ministry and of the national company for energy transportation,

Transelectrica.

Who does ANRE order advantage?

At a first glance, ANRE would advantage the miners within Oltenia Energetic Complex, who

came to Bucharest in order to curse the regulating institution directly from the street, from

beneath its windows. This is not an advantage for the institution, when one does something

under pressure, however being obliged by the law to be independent. For ANRE leaders who, as

we well know, have been politically appointed, this is a real benefit.

* As concerns Oltenia Energetic Complex, those who are aware of the market mechanisms know

that the decrease of the lower offering limit from lei 10 to lei 0.1 (as the publicly debated Order

provides) can not help Oltenia Energetic Complex that much, to obtain profit from production of

electricity, but from non-production, therefore without any coal consumption. It could have an

important advantage on the market due to limiting the offer by hours, not by days, as the

previous ANRE Order 33/2012 provided. But, this gag does not change the coal consumption

either. Therefore, another advantage would be for CE Oltenia’s management, who benefits from

the fact that they are not held liable for this situation.

* Transelectrica is the one that benefits from ANRE move, as the company’s representatives

states that they could not apply the GD 138/2013 due to the absence of ANRE regulation.

Actually, Transelectrica had the legal freedom to act, but in this situation the costs involved by

the so-called "safety of electric power supply" would have been irrelevant, and would have

created temporary money problems. It is more important the fact that applying the GD 138 could

have reopened a Pandora box for the “marionettes” and would have re-brought to discussions

the real arguments based on which the GD 138 has been issued. This is why both the ministry of

energy and the government pressed ANRE to avoid the subject.

* The prime minister Victor Ponta, the one who should and could solve the situation without any

other complications, gained time and potential to attack the energy market, a nail to all

governments used to make their point but which, from legal point of view, is not at Executive’s

hand.

And the surprise is …

* This situation we are in points out that the economic focus solution that the government has

imposed for less than one year by creating CE Oltenia and CE Hunedoara is improper. A real

monopole of coal mixed with the electric power production plants. The small spot of Romanian

coal has been extinguished. Even if CE Oltenia benefited last year from a very advantageous

solution of the energy market, it did not know how to take measures for “dark waters” period,

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when no coal production is necessary and revisions must be programmed, as well as plant

repairs and miners’ health improvement by means of temporary outdoor activity. The great

“manager” that passed the competitions on the first position (obviously politically), managing CE

Oltenia even at this moment, has proved his ability.

Who is in disadvantage and for what?

Miners are usually oriented towards attacking the one that can not solve their problem. Luckily, in

the mean time, they got smarter. Electricians are threatened by salary decrease; consumers,

payers of electric power are made, again, to forcedly admit the affirmations of politicians from

consumer’s pocket for the so-called non-polluting – renewable production.

And things do not stop here. We, however, promise to be back.

Varujan Vosganian: I do not admit holding the energy prices lower in order to allow the

industry not to make modernization expenses

There must be a wide vision in Romania so that energy prices’ liberalization could be borne by

the industry, but it has to pay its debts as concerns the modernization investments, stated

Thursday, in Brussels, the ministry of economy, Varujan Vosganian.

“We must discuss how the industry must absorb the liberalization process, without its

competiveness being affected. I know the energy department has the intention to discuss this

calendar with the European Commission. As concerns my liability, I already discussed with my

colleagues in the industry sector, with great consumers, with Feral, ArcelorMittal, Alro, Mechel,

with the chemical industry and I explored their reactions”, stated the minister of economy, at his

visit in Brussels on occasion of the high meeting on steel industry chaired by the European

commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani.

Vosganian mentioned that there bust be an overall image in Romania “related also to the

cogeneration charge, green certificate’s regime, distribution of costs by ANRE per distribution

area, so that the electric power, as final price, somehow compensates the liberalization with

other components and be bearable for the industry”.

He also underlined that the industry has the liability to make modernization investments. “This is

why the discussions I have had with all these companies had a double meaning. On one hand,

the responsibilities the state should have, as well as the responsibilities the companies should

have. And this due to the fact that I am against keeping the energy prices lower in order to keep

the industry from making modernization expenses”, said the Romanian minister, Agerpres

transmits.

Lawyer: State producers start to regret the absence of bilateral energy contracts

After being pointed out for years as reasons for the disastrous situation of state companies,

bilateral energy contracts reached to be, paradoxical, regretted by energy producers included in

the Ministry of Economy’s portfolio.

We all understood that the market is operational, but the question is in whose benefit does it

operate? The prices will be liberalized, but the methods are weaker. Bilateral contracts, both for

Hidroelectrica, and for Oltenia Complex, would have allowed the producers to have access to

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financing and offered stability. Another positive aspect is that consumers benefited from energy

at lower prices. The price has increased for Hidroelectrica, but it has decreased for the general

market. The prices are the same for the consumers that already had effectual contracts with

other producers, because these contracts are still effectual“, stated Cosmin Stavaru, partner at

the law firm Bulboacă & Asociaţii, during an energetic forum.

Hidroelectrica denunciated last year the bilateral contracts concluded with Energy Holding, Alpiq

Industries, Alpiq Romenergie, EFT and Europec, as well as the ones with Deva and Paroşeni

thermal power plants.

Oltenia Energetic Complex has high problems due to the decrease of consumption, plus the

great production in the wind sector, which removes the company from the market. It has had,

until recently, 14,000 miners on forced leave due to non-operational groups.

According to Valeriu Binig, manager at Deloitte, CE Oltenia has had the highest market share

last year in the electricity sector, of 33%, while this year it operated only with a couple of groups.

"Suppliers started to waive the PCCB contracts and buy from the spot market now (from

OPCOM- en). Therefore, creditors start to wonder is the companies to which they granted loans

will pay them at the rates presented in the business plan", said Binig.

Suppliers buy from the spot market due to the price, which is much lower than the long term

bilateral contracts market. And this is possible because the producers of the renewable sector

receive, besides the energy, the green certificates which they sell separately. A green certificate

is granted at the delivery of one MWh of energy from green sources. Its minimum price is of euro

27 and the maximum price is of euro 57.

Miners take the capital by ASSAULT: 100 employees of CE Oltenia will PROTEST în

Bucharest

100 miners from Oltenia Energetic Complex left, on Tuesday morning, to Bucharest, to protest in

front of the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority.

The employees of the complex are dissatisfied that the company does not sell energy and are

afraid for their jobs. The person in fault in this respect is, in their opinion, ANRE, who supports

the producers of renewable energy, according to Digi 24.

Miners from Jiului Valley will organize protests each day of this week, even if the Government

has announced that it will favor the purchase of energy from Oltenia Energetic Complex, which is

one of the most expensive producers of the system. Hundreds of persons are to be dismissed in

2014.

100 miners left from Gorj. This is the first day of protests, which are programmed until the end of

the week.

On May 24th 5,000 more miners will arrive in Bucharest for protests, unless the issue is solved

this week.

ANRE gave in: the balancing market rules are changing

The waiting of the Regulation Authority in the matter concerning the delicate situation of Oltenia

Energetic Complex has reached to an end. Subject to the pressures that are not related to the

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independence of the Authority, there was decided that the review of Order 33/2012 concerning

the set up of certain balancing market rules applicable to the production of electric power

benefiting from promotion systems should be put in practice. More properly said, the Government

Decision 123/2013, concerning the adoption of certain measures for the safety of electric power

supply, dedicated to Oltenia and Hunedoara energetic complexes must be urgently applied and

included in the secondary legislation adopted by ANRE.

Energy-Center wrote a couple of days before: “ANRE, insistently accused by Mr. Laurentiu Ciurel

for not applying the provisions of the Decision made in favor of the two energetic complexes,

seems to indeed play the independence card. We will see when the regulation authority will give

up in front of these pressures. It is a fact that we are at the beginning of a great battle or, rather,

of new great arrangements sheltered by the “national interest”. The social aspect is in stake, as

well as the approximately 20,000 employees of Oltenia Energetic Complex. However, pay

attention, this is a trick”.

It seems that ANRE did not cope with the pressures very well, even if the chairman Niculae

Havrilet admits that CE Oltenia had nothing to loose from the fact that it did not sell electric

power lately, “Oltenia Energetic Complex is on the reserve bench. This reserve is paid, and their

contracts are taken over by the other producers. They receive more money than they would have

from production and sale. Oltenia Energetic Complex records no loss”, said ANRE chairman for

Hotnews. And then, why the urgency? Obviously, not the CE Oltenia energetic units are the

problem, but the incorporated mining exploitations, which gather about 16,000 miners. ANRE

had to consider them when it took the decision to change the balancing market rules.

Therefore, the proposal to review Order 33 was posted on ANRE website for discussions. “The

review was imposed due to the change of specific provisions of the initial legislation and the

entrance into effect of certain provisions applicable in the balancing market field included in the

Electricity and Natural Gas Law no. 123/2012 and in the GD 138/2013 for adopting certain

measures for electricity safety supply”, according to a press release of ANRE.

The document to be discussed supplements the participation manner to the balancing market of

dispatchable production units established by Order 33/2012, meaning that it mentions how the

thermal dispatchable production units, object of the GD 138/2013, will operate on the balancing

market.

The document to be discussed also updates the dispatching mechanism per priorities generated

by the Transportation and System Operator's experience in applying it until now.

The proposal to review Order 33/2012 was based on analyzing the operational results of the

balancing market obtained until now and on the proposals of the participants to the balancing

market, of the parties liable for balancing and of the Transportation and System Operator,

according to ANRE press release source. We will analyses during the following days what this

review of Order 33 involves and why was considered now that this intervention is necessary.

How do miners negotiate with ANRE the granting of new facilities for CE Oltenia thermal

power plants, while the general manager is in China

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The trade union members of Oltenia Energetic Complex threaten with the organization on May

24th of a great protest to which 5,000 employees of the company are to participate. The miners

have already started to mark-out the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), motivating

that this institution is faulty for the fact that CE Oltenia does not manage to sell energy on the

market. Actually, Oltenia does not manage to sell because its production is inefficient, at very

high costs, while the energy sale prices have decreased very little on the free market. The

consumption being low, the best sold energy is the one from hydrological sources, nuclear and

renewable sources. At this moment, the trade union members pressure ANRE to allow the

energetic complex’s to be the first of the system. We must mention that Laurentiu Ciurel, "the

private manager" of the company and former vice president of PSD Gorj, is absent from

discussions, being in China for one week, with the delegated minister for energy, Constantin

Nita.

In other words, in these stressful days, Oltenia’s faith is decided by the trade unions.

Oltenia Energetic Complex was set up last year by means of a merger between the units

Turceni, Rovinari, Craiova and Societatea Nationala a Lignitului Oltenia. Approximately 19,000

employees work at Oltenia, out of which 6,000 in energetic field, and 13,000 in mining field.

Oltenia Complex produces at a very high cost towards the prices allowed on the market,

meaning around 50 euro/MWh, considering that the average sale price has decreased lately

below 40 euro/MWh.

CE Oltenia has a private manager since January. On January 21st 2013, the Supervisory Council

of CE Oltenia appointed the interim general manager of the company at that moment, Laurentiu

Ciurel, former vice president of PSD Gorj, in the position of General Manager, with a mandate of

four years. This was a controversial appointment, as the Appointment and Remuneration

Commission only interviewed Ciurel, ignoring the other persons who were on the short list. Ciurel

was already managing the company, being appointed interim general manager during the

summer of 2012.

This private manager did not present any streamlining plan or costs decrease plan. Moreover,

instead of adopting a cost decrease program, CE Oltenia and the other problematic producer,

CE Hunedoara, received Government facilities by means of a decision (HG 138/2013) approved

in April which allows guaranteed and priority access into the energetic system to thermal power

plants. Moreover, Nita wishes to merge these inefficient units with the more effective units, such

as hydrological power plants. However, the GD 138/2013 could not be enforced, even if the term

was the middle of April, due to an order of ANRE, 33/2012, which establishes the entrance order

on the balancing market. Based on an “order of merit”, grounded on the costs decrease principle,

the thermal power plants are the last ones to access the balancing market, priority having the

renewable energy and the other more efficient producers.

Politics disguised in „private CEO“

Daniela Lulache, chief at Nuclearelectrica has no experience in energy

Daniela Lulache, the former general manager of Fondul Proprietatea between 2008 and 2009,

will become the general manager of Nuclearelectrica, one of the most powerful local producers of

energy, with a market share of 20%.

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Lulache, economist, with no experience in the field she is now managing, was appointed in this

position based on the GEO 109/2011 regarding the corporate governance of public enterprises,

being proposed by the consultants at Quest Advisors, Transearch and the lawyers at the law firm

Boştină şi Asociaţii.

„The consultant put its stake on her managerial abilities“, explained Gabriel Dumitraşcu for ZF,

chief of the State Participation and Privatization in Industry Office.

Therefore, Lulache becomes the general manager, also having the quality of member of the

board of directors, of a company having a business of euro 450 mil., with a high specialty degree

– nuclear energy. This apolitical appointment in the highest position possible within

Nuclearelectrica, disguised in a „ private CEO“, was done even if an electrical engineer must

study for years and be specialized in order to work in this sector: nuclear energy.

The disaster at Cernobîl or the more recent one at Fukushima point out that the security risks in

this industry are huge, and these political interferences increase the risk.

Lulache did not comment on her appointment and neither the Quest Advisors representatives

offered any explanations in this respect.

Lulache was proposed in October 2012 on the position of general manager of Nuclearelectrica,

but she refused. Being an economist, Lulache has had different financial advisor jobs before

being co-opted into the management team of Fondul Proprietatea ever since it’s set up in 2005.

She received the mandate to Fondul Proprietatea management during PNL government led by

Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, who was also the founder of Fondul Proprietatea. According to the

information published in the press, Daniela Lulache and her husband, Cristian Lulache are the

wedding parents of Cristian David, the former minister of interiors during Tăriceanu government.

Another liberal, Daniel Chiţoiu, is the one who proposed her during last year at Nuclearelectrica

management. At this moment, Daniela Lulache is advisor of BNR vice-governor Bogdan Olteanu.

Among other positions occupied during her career is the managing partner at Eqvon Finance, a

business consultancy company which she set up after her dismissal from FP. Lulache has also

worked at Raiffeisen Bank, as manager of the credits and redemptions restructuring division, as

well as at AVAB.

„The proposals of the appointment committee were Mrs. Lulache in the position of general

manager and Mr. Ionel Bucur (current manager of Cernavodă plant – ed. n.) in the position of

nuclear operations manager. These nominalizations were made based on the advisor’s report.

Each received 6 votes out of seven within the board of directors, because each of them refrained

from voting their own nominalization“, explained Dumitraşcu. According to him, during the

following meeting of the shareholders, which has not been programmed yet, the mandate

contracts shall be signed.

The employees in the nuclear industry sustain that the practice of appointing for the management

of certain profile companies of managers from outside the sector is a novelty, as long as the new

managers attend specialty trainings, and, more important, the employees of the operational

structures continue to be appointed in the positions depending on their experience in the field. In

this case, the new nuclear operations manager of Nuclearelectrica is the current manager of

Cernavodă plant, Ionel Bucur, who holds this position since 2007, but who has a 30 years

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experience in this field. The board of directors of Nuclearelectrica, includes, besides Daniela

Lulache, Carmen Radu, former chairman of EximBank, Alexandru Săndulescu, the current

chairman of Nuclearelectrica’s Board of Directors, Alexe Alexandru, OPSPI head of department

deputy, Ionel Bucur, manager of Cernavodă Plant, Paul Dragoş Popescu, general manager of

EnergoNuclear, the design company for reactors 3 and 4, and Dan Popescu, general secretary

of Nuclear Agency &Radioactive Waste within the Ministry of Economy.

According to certain financial data published by Fondul Proprietatea, minority shareholder at

Nuclearelectrica, the company has had a gross profit of lei 6,6 millions during the past year, to

businesses exceeding lei 2 billion.

Marlene Holzner, spokeswoman of the Commissioner for Energy: The European

Commission stimulates the Romanian authorities to continue the gradual liberalization of

energy prices

The Romanian gas consumers, especially InterAgro, insistently request the Romanian authorities

to postpone by one year the gas prices liberalization calendar. This would mean that Romania

would not observe the commitments undertaken towards the European Commission and IMF.

The European Commission was informed on the fact that “certain industrial clients request the

postponement of gas prices’ liberalization for industrial consumers by one year”, but “stimulate

the authorities to continue the gradual liberalization of energy prices”, stated for HotNews

Marlene Holzner, spokeswoman of the Commissioner for Energy. In other words, the

Commission requests the observance of the calendar. “The Commission also requests the

proper protection of vulnerable consumers", also said Marlene Holzner.

We remind that the authorities have not succeed until now to adopt measures related to the

protection of vulnerable consumers directly influenced by prices' liberalization, due to which

reason Romania was brought to justice at the European Court of Justice.

“The Romanian government undertook to liberalize the prices on energy markets based on an

energy roadmap. The Commission considers that this kind of commitment would be observed.

The Commission, jointly with the International Monetary Fund, fully sustains the commitment of

the Romanian authorities as agreed in the roadmaps. Moreover, it stimulates the authorities to

continue the gradual liberalization of energy prices, process that allows the sustainable

development of the Romanian energetic sector and the accomplishment in better conditions of

the investments in energetic networks in order to ensure their future durability. The Commission

also requests the proper protection of vulnerable consumers”.

Marlene Holzner mentioned that until now, the European Commission has not received any

application from the Romanian Government concerning the postponement of prices’

liberalization.

Ponta: "We must become energy exporters

During the following period, our country must have several preoccupations in the energy export

field said, yesterday, the Prime Minister Victor Ponta, on occasion of concluding the "Energy

Pact". He underlined that: "We have the natural chance of being very little dependant on the

import of energetic resources. Therefore we must take the necessary measures in order to

develop all kinds of energy and to be able to become energy exporters. Neither of these types of

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natural resources for energy production must kill the other. However, we must optimize the

energy consumption and energy production costs, in order to have a cheap energy”.

The Chief of Executive underlined that the energy must be governed by the rules of free market,

and the state will encourage the access on the market of as many private investors as possible.

Victor Ponta proposes that during the following period our country should have the courage to

take important decisions in the energetic field and energy resources exploitation field in order to

become and important player in the area.

The energy pact was launched by the academic environment of our country, controlled by the

Romanian Academy, being supported by all energetic companies. The pact promotes eight

economic development principles, respectively the increase of energetic security, optimizing a

balanced mixture of energy, energetic efficiency, renewable energy, environment protection. To

these are added the support of research-development activity, the creation of a stable,

predictable and operational legal environment, the assurance of corporate governance of state

companies, the increase of Romania’s importance as player on the European energetic market.

Decrease of “electric power” bill

The legal changes supporting the great energy consumers could lead to the decrease by two

figures of the invoices paid by them, stated the minister of Economy, Varujan Vosganian, during

a press conference.

“In order to counter-balance the energy price, we have the possibility of decreasing the

cogeneration charge, green certificates, and the method by which ANRE previously includes the

distribution and transportation costs. We can discuss these with the producers of aluminum,

steel, chemical products. We are not considering the relocation of the smart guys from energy to

petro chemistry or steel industry. These are economic matters, but specific methods can be

found for great consumers. We will be oriented towards long term contracts providing the

situation of unfavorable costs”, stated Varujan Vosganian.

He also mentioned that all legal changes made to support the great consumers would decrease

the invoice paid by them for energy by two figures.

“The legal changes would decrease the invoice significantly, maybe event by two figures for

companies”, Vosganian added.

As concerns the price paid for natural gas, the official mentioned that EU recommends the

continuation of the calendar established for liberalization.

“As concerns the gases, we must discuss, it is probable that EC does not agree with this. The

recommendation is that Romania continues its established calendar. We must discuss with great

consumers and find solutions”, the minister of Economy mentioned.

The Government agrees with the idea of setting up an energy investment fund

The Government agrees with the idea of setting up an energy investment fund and the chances

are high that the bill is approved by the Executive, said sources close to the situation. The legal

initiative of setting up such funds belongs to the deputies Dumitru Chiriţă, Marin Gheorghe and

Florin Tătaru, all three – members of the Committee for Industries and Services, and it first hit on

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the resistance of the authorities that did not wish to give up a budget financing source (money

from packages of shares sold by energetic companies, money from dividends).

Apparently the Government still analyzes the elements of this fund, as there is the observation

that it should be fed only by shares of energetic companies, not with all holdings of the Ministry of

Economy within the company it manages. Therefore, if it passes the Government, the fund has

the chance to receive state’s minority and majority holdings in the energetic field, our sources

also say.

The normative bill concerning the set up of the “Romanian Fund for Strategic Investments in

Energy and Energetic Resources” was recently submitted to the Senate and received, on April

16th, the note of the Legislative Council of the Standing Bureau of the Senate.

Many specialists of the energy market as well as the companies in the field view this bill with a

friendly eye, because, in their opinion, it stands for the best method of financing our great

energetic projects (is transparent and cheap).

At this moment, the state cashes in dividends and the money goes to consumption. The

energetic companies have very little money from own sources in order to finance the

investments. Therefore, the companies had to borrow great amounts of money from banks, at

very disadvantageous interests, in order to make investments.

A recent assessment points out that during the following years our energetic sector needs

investments of approximately euro 10 billions (building new transportation lines, new production

units, re-engineering the existing ones). The investments fund can support the ambitious projects

in the gas field (new exploitations and explorations, new transportation pipes) both by granting a

more advantageous financing and by participating to partnerships with private investors and/or

by drawing additional funds from third markets.

OPCOM

Green certificates market

The weighted average price of a GC for the most recent 3 ended months of trading on PCCV, (December 2012-February 2013), calculated according to the provisions of the law 134/2012, is of 241,49 Lei/CV

Prices recorded on Day Ahead Market

Prices and volumes 15.05 16.05 17.05 18.05 19.05 20.05 21.05

Average price [Lei/MWh] 152,31 160,14 129,63 163,67 129,63 121,10 151,02

Total daily traded volume on Day Ahead Market

43.240 45.233 43.998 37.162 31.613 39.544 43.912

ROPEX_FM_M Futures markets (PCCB) 2012-2013 [lei/MWh]

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

ROPEX_FM_2012 217,82 210,23 216,25 216,44 214,36 215,45 215,19 212,94 217,15 220,40 222,46 223,00 223,13

ROPEX_FM_2013 216,32 232,39 230,82 224,97 217,35 213,30 211,52 214,69 214,20 212,98 211,27 210,97 211,00

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TRANSELECTRICA

Production

Consumption/Production

Daily average Consumption Production Coal Gases Waters Nuclear External balance Wind Photo

13.05 5718 5585 1285 856 2665 698 134 80 2

14.05 5965 5706 1582 490 2360 706 259 566 1

15.05 5982 5717 1703 499 2596 697 266 219 2

16.05 5984 5927 1720 514 2708 701 57 282 2

17.05 5994 5953 1745 510 2475 700 41 522 1

18.05 5498 5275 1517 522 2313 706 223 215 2

19.05 5012 4730 1482 521 1883 706 281 135 2

Comparing values for the same day, different years

Graphics, Map

On Tuesday 14.05.2013 Tuesday 15.05.2012

Consumption of electric power

Average 5981 6448

Maximum 6899 7307

Export/Import 266(export) 108(import)

Average capacity

TOTAL (Pmed) 5715 6341

Out of which:

Coal 1583 2492

Hydrocarbons 493 456

Nuclear 708 701

Wind 534 387

Hydro 2396 2253

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Forecast of flows and levels

between 20.05.2013, 07.00 a.m. – 27.05.2013, 07.00 a.m.

The water flow at entrance into the country (Bazias section) shall decrease during the first four days of the

interval up to the value of 7200 m3/s, and then shall increase up to the value of 7400 m3/s, being above the

multiannual average of May (7250 m3/s), except for 24.05.2013.

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The information is destined to EFT Romania clients and is for information only. It is taken from different public sources and EFT Romania can not be held liable, in any way, for any damages or issues that might result from its use. Please contact EFT Romania for any other information at tel. no. 0040 21 303 36 23