ELCEN reported losses worth some €8 mln in January

Romania’s largest thermal energy supplier announced yesterday that it will send a letter to the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) to increase prices of thermal energy delivered to RADET distributors by at least 18 percent, 3 percentage points higher than requested at the end of last year. “We are forced to ask for price increase above that initially requested (Ed. n. 15 percent) due to the price increase for natural gas approved by ANRE as of February 1,” said Irina Duica.

The January losses add to the negative results in 2007. According to preliminary data, ELCEN Bucharest ended the year 2007 with €18.5 million in losses. ELCEN representatives said that about a month ago losses were due to exploitation costs and uncorrelated thermal energy delivery and production costs.

The income from exploitation rose to €678 mln in 2007 and turnover to €666 mln.

ELCEN, the largest state-owned thermal energy supplier, is facing a lack of funds to make payments for fuel to distributors in Bucharest and Constanta, divisions administered by local authorities. ELCEN operates five thermal power plants in Bucharest and supplied some 10 percent of electricity nationwide in 2007.