The supply of natural gas will become a competitive regime, based on the contract concluded between the domestic customer and the supplier. The commercial conditions are negotiated between them or established through standard offers. The offers received from suppliers by household customers must be analyzed, and the new contracts must be concluded by 30 June 2020.

The customer has the right to close, free of charge, the natural gas supply contract in case he does not accept the modifications/completions of the contractual conditions/clauses, as well as the price/tariff increase, notified by the supplier. Any contract must be read carefully and analyzed, especially the conditions for changing the price.

The process of changing the supplier does not involve technical changes or the collection of fees or charges. The home customer changes only the supplier and not the distributor.

The offers received from the natural gas suppliers may differ in terms of contractual clauses in aspects such as the method and term of payment of the invoice, the transmission of the index and the invoice, the periodicity of issuing invoices, required guarantees, the period for which concludes the contract and for which the price offered, conditions for unilateral termination /ending of the contract or other special clauses are valid. Therefore, to know if the received offer corresponds to his needs, the consumer of natural gas has at his disposal a useful tool in the choice he has to make: Comparator of standard offers of natural gas supply, tool is available on ANRE website at https://www.anre.ro/ro/info-consumatori/comparator-oferte-tip-de-furnizare-a-gn

The contracts are concluded with natural gas suppliers operating on the natural gas retail market and holding a license issued by the competent authority in the field, ANRE. The activity of these suppliers is not limited to a certain geographical area. Only the price of natural gas is negotiated with the supplier; transmission and distribution tariffs remain regulated by ANRE.

The natural gas supply contract may be concluded for a definite or indefinite period. Increased attention must be paid to the period for which a certain price is offered.

If a customer does not sign another contract for the supply of natural gas on a competitive basis by June 30, 2020, the current supplier will continue to provide it after July 1, 2020, but at a price offered by the supplier. At the time of concluding the contract with a new provider, the household customer will submit a notification of the change of provider, by which the provider is empowered to send the necessary notifications to the network operator and the current provider.

If the current supplier has been changed, within a maximum of 42 calendar days from the date of termination of the natural gas supply contract, the former supplier has the obligation to send the final customer the invoice with the final settlement statement. If the final liquidation statement contains a positive balance, the client

finally has the obligation to pay the equivalent value of the invoice until the due date. In case the final liquidation statement contains a negative balance, the supplier has the obligation to return to the final customer the amount due, within 5 calendar days from the date of issuing the invoice.

Any complaints related to the aspects of the process of concluding/terminating the supply contract are addressed in the first instance to the supplier in this case and if there are complaints about the way the complaint was resolved, customers can contact ANRE. 

Author: Vlad Caragea, dipl.ing. Power Engineer Energypal - Timepal Romania