Experts of the Association “WatchDog.MD” Community consider there are preconditions for reviewing the tariffs of the heat and electric power supplied by SA “Termoelectrica”. The new tariffs should be set depending on the value of the financial deviations that appeared after the natural gas tariff  was decreased. The experts demands that the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) should explain why the heat tariff hasn’t been yet reviewed and should present information about particular costs include in the tariff.

In a news conference at IPN, Tudor Șoitu, ex-vice president of the Court of Auditors, said there are three categories of costs that are included in the heat tariff – the natural gas purchase component that represents 77% of the cost of services provided by SA “Termoelectrica”; the own consumption of electricity, and the wear and tear of assets. “First in January 2018, we warned that the natural gas tariffs should be reduced for household users. The tariffs of the heat and electric power supplied by SA “Termoelectrica” should also be reduced. This didn’t happen and we don’t understand why,” stated Tudor Șoitu.

As to the wear component, the expert said the wear degree calculated by SA “Termoelectrica” in 2006 was 17 million lei, then 53 million lei and 116 million lei in 2016. It is not clear why this sum increased.

Energy expert Sergiu Tofilat said the NAER in March reduced the gas tariff by 19.6% for power stations that produce energy from gas. This contributes to a 15% reduction in costs. Respectively, the heat tariff should have been decreased in March. “We hope this tariff is not kept high so as to reduce it by about 25% before the parliamentary elections and the PDM could say that this is their accomplishment,” stated Sergiu Tofilat.

The experts said they asked for information on the issue from the NAER a month ago, but received no answer yet.