Energy prices in Europe are too high and, in Romania, they are even higher when measured against purchasing power, President of the Federation of the Association of Utility Companies in Romania (ACUE) and E.ON CEO Volker Raffel told an industry event on Thursday.

'Energy prices in Europe are too high, and we all know that. Prices in Romania are even higher. I recently saw statistics showing that industrial production in Germany has fallen by 10% in recent years, while energy-intensive production has declined by 20%. You can imagine what that means for the European economy. Industrial production in Romania has fallen even more sharply. Therefore, excessively high energy prices represent a huge risk for all of us, for budget revenues and for economic prosperity. Compared with purchasing power, energy prices are the highest in Romania. In Germany, I pay almost 40 cents per kWh, while here we offer prices below 30 cents. In absolute terms, prices here are substantially lower, but when compared with purchasing power, the average in Romania is among the highest in Europe for household consumers. The situation is similar for industry. If we do not take action, this trend will continue, with all the consequences I have described for industry, energy-intensive sectors and the wider economy. It is not us who are increasing energy bills,' Raffel said.

The ACUE representative also stressed that Romania has an extremely low distribution tariff compared with other European countries.

'Three years ago, I said that we needed to invest beyond the crisis period. We proposed investing in renewable energy because it is the fastest solution available. Nuclear reactors are attractive, but they cannot be built quickly. A photovoltaic panel can be installed very rapidly. You can imagine where we would be today without investment in renewables. Without renewable energy, it would have been a complete disaster. But that is not the whole story. We see these price peaks in the evenings because we struggle to find enough energy sources. The solution is storage, but that means we cannot simply continue connecting thousands of consumers every month. Last year, we connected 2,000 consumers per month to our network. Now we are connecting 3,000 every month. That creates costs and we also need to connect storage facilities belonging to prosumers, which are the largest. If we do not do this, we will continue to experience extraordinary price spikes in the evenings. If we have the opportunity to introduce dynamic tariffs, smart meters and, finally, batteries, we can reduce these price spikes during the evening period as well,' the head of E.ON said.

He also argued that the most expensive solution would be to stop investing in networks.

'The second most expensive solution is to continue connecting renewable energy projects while lacking the funds to connect batteries, new prosumers, new consumers and data centres, and we are at risk of that scenario. I have outlined the problem, but I would also like to propose a solution. If we can agree with the authorities on a package of measures to improve the situation, we in the private sector can mobilise private capital to invest beyond the crisis period and in the networks themselves. I often hear people say: 'If you invest more, those are additional costs. We do not want extra costs.' It is similar to Bucharest's district heating network. Nobody wants higher costs, but the result is a system that loses 40% of the energy it transports. The proposal is that if we make all these connections for storage facilities and new consumers, along the motorway corridor in Moldavia, which falls within our service area, we can keep distribution tariffs under control. At the same time, if we avoid evening price peaks, we could reduce Romania's wholesale electricity market price by more than 42% by 2035,' the specialist explained.

Representatives of central authorities, energy companies and industry associations are participating on Thursday in a new edition of the 'Energy Road - Energy in Your Home' event. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)