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Transelectrica: Power consumption to decline 4 pct a year to 2017, no longer to reflect economic development
Romania's power consumption will drop by 4 per cent a year by 2017, but this indicator no longer reflects the economic development of the country, as it used to, Director General Stefan Bucataru of Romania's national electricity transmission operator Transelectrica stated on Wednesday.
According to data with Transelectrica, domestic power consumption declined 4.1 per cent in H1, 2013 from H1, 2012 and the falling trend will continue.
While developments in power consumption used to be directly proportional to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country, the two indicators are no longer correlated, because industry, the biggest power consumer, has modified its behavior, according to Transelectrica representatives.
'We are noticing a divorce of the two indicators. Power consumption is no longer influenced by economic growth. So far, the GDP and power consumption would have similar percentages of increase or decrease, but the two elements are no longer correlated as they were least year,' said Bucataru.
Carmen Neagu, a member on the Transelectrica Oversight Board, said there is a structural change happening in industrial development.
'Power-hungry industries are replaced by value-added ones. Moreover, European directives provide for energy efficiency, menacing a drop in consumption, a new approach. Industry uses equipment that uses increasingly less power. At the same time, there is a drop even in electricity consumption for heating thanks to weatherisation,' said Neagu.
Transelectrica closed H1, 2013 on a net profit of RON 102.745 million, five times the H1, 2012 profit of RON 20.458 million, according to data submitted to the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).
The company's business turnover declined 23.7 per cent from the similar period of the year before, to RON 1.098 billion.
Transelectrica administers and operates Romania's electricity transmission system, securing electricity exchanges between Central and Eastern European countries as a member on the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E).
Shareholders in Transelectrica are the Romanian Government, via the Public Finance Ministry - 58.6882 per cent; Fondul Proprietatea - 13.499 per cent; legal entities - 21.3951 per cent and individuals - 6.4177 per cet.