Croatian Citizens Will Not Be Severely Affected by Energy Crisis This Winter

Winter, electricity (Pixabay)

Croatian citizens should not be affected by problems in gas and electricity supply this winter, nor face any significant price hikes despite the energy crisis in Europe. All actors on the Croatian gas market have reiterated several times that they have sufficient quantities secured and that there will be no price hikes at least until next spring. Similar messages have come from national power company Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP), which is the biggest electricity supplier in Croatia.

In a recent press release, HEP underscored that it had sufficient quantities of its own electricity for the buyers and that the prices for households would not change over the next few months.

According to the latest Eurostat data for 2020, the average price of electricity for Croatian households which annually consume between 2,500 and 5,000 KWh is EUR0.115 per KWh or HRK0.87 without fees and taxes.

As for the price of natural gas for households, it was EUR3.9 per 100 KWh which, according to Eurostat, puts Croatia in the group of EU countries with the lowest price.

Economic analyst and a former Croatian minister of economy Ljubo Jurcic does not expect that Croatian citizens will be directly affected by the European energy crisis.

"If there is no force majeure, there will be no shortages or price hikes... Gas prices for citizens are locked until April next year, and that is a critical period for the citizens," Jurcic told BETA.

The price of gas for households is regulated by the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (HERA) and it has already been set for the period from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. Potential price hikes may happen no earlier than in the spring, i.e. for the next regulatory year.

Unlike the citizens and the vast majority of business entities, Jurcic warns, big consumers who have not agreed a gas price in advance could potentially find themselves in trouble, as they now have to buy that gas at considerably higher prices.

"Where consumer prices are concerned, there will be no direct impact on citizens. Relative to the prices of oil derivatives, the situation is fine there for the time being because the government limited the price for a month in October," Jurcic explained.

He said the government would most likely extend the restriction on the derivatives' price for one more month and then, if the price of oil grew, it would arrange sliding scale fees.

According to official data, Croatia imports roughly 30% of the electricity it uses and about 60% of primary energy (natural gas, oil, coal), mostly from Russia, whereas a portion of the gas goes through the LNG Terminal on the island of Krk.

Jurcic pointed out that Croatia had a lot of hydropower, around 30%, and nuclear energy - around 15%, while the rest pertained to coal- and gas-fired thermal power plants.

On the occasion of the 1000th edition of Beta Monitor, a specialized economic bulletin focused on South East European countries, Beta News Agency is releasing a series of articles on energy available free of charge on www.beta.rs in Serbian and on www.betabriefing.com in English.