“The recent changes to the Energy Act have made the energy regulator a major factor determining when the full liberalization of the retail market in our country will occur. I believe that this process should become reality in the next three to five years, despite the fact that in recent years the word liberalization has been demonized and associated only with higher energy costs.” That was stated by EWRC Chairman Plamen Mladenovski at the Green Transition Forum 5.0 taking place in our country - an annual conference dedicated to the Green Transformation and Sustainable Development in Central and Eastern Europe. During the second day of the forum he was a speaker in the panel discussion "How to Reduce Energy Prices and Ease Regulations to Increase Industry Competitiveness".
The head of the energy regulator shared the opinion that full liberalization in our country is currently not a good step and hides risks due to insufficient connectivity of energy systems and the geopolitical situation in the world, which is driving electricity prices up.
“Currently we are in a situation of transition, of energy systems’ transformation. Every transition in history has been accompanied by problems, but ultimately has led to progress for humanity. In the current transitional period, the support of household consumers is fully justified and necessary, because in this way we will protect ourselves from compromising the idea of liberalization”, Plamen Mladenovski emphasized to the participants. Therefore, a priority in EWRC regulatory policy is to encourage companies to invest in digitalisation and network innovation at an accelerated pace. This will allow the introduction of “smart metering devices” that allow household consumers to manage their consumption, so-called “smart metering”.
“I do expect this to happen within the specified period of 3 to 5 years and in this way the household consumers will be able to take full advantage of the benefits of the liberalized market - to individually adjust their consumption, benefiting from the hours with zero electricity prices and thus reducing their bills,” said EWRC Chairman to the participants in the forum.
Financial support to industry due to high electricity exchange prices should be provided only to target groups, Plamen Mladenovski categorically stated. “Only energy-intensive enterprises that are actually suffering damage due to higher market prices in the decarbonisation process should benefit from such support. This requires clearly defining those industries that have worsened their financial situation and competitiveness, and only to them should the state provide targeted support,” he stated.
Within the framework of the Green Transition Forum 5.0, EWRC Chairman spoke with Lukasz Kozinski, Director of Green Transformation and Integration of Energy Systems at the Directorate-General for Energy of the European Commission. A wide range of issues have been discussed in the meeting related to electricity market liberalization in our country, network digitalization, gas connectivity expansion in the region, etc.
