ANRE Prepares Color-Coded Ratings for Energy Suppliers — NRG-IA

ANRE is preparing one of the most visible changes for electricity and natural gas consumers: suppliers will be compared not only by price, but also by the quality of their customer relations. The regulatory authority has published for public consultation a draft order approving the Framework Procedure on the obligation of electricity and natural gas suppliers to resolve final customer complaints. The mechanism introduces a Customer Satisfaction Index , calculated for each supplier, and a color-coded classification system: green, yellow, and red. These colors will act as a quick public signal, to be subsequently integrated into the official comparison tools for electricity and natural gas offers. Price will no longer be the only visible criterion Until now, choosing a supplier has been driven mainly by price: the cost per kWh, the duration of the offer, and the fees and terms in the contract. The new system introduces a second public criterion: how the supplier behaves after the contract is signed. This difference matters to consumers. A cheap offer can become problematic if the supplier issues late invoices, communicates poorly, responds slowly to complaints, or fails to resolve justified grievances on time. In a previously published article by NRG-IA on this topic, ANRE President George-Sergiu Niculescu was quoted with a statement that pinpoints the exact issue: "A low price is useless if, for example, I don't receive an invoice for four consecutive months." Through the new mechanism, service quality becomes public, comparable, and easy-to-read information. For the customer, the traffic light system can show whether a supplier has a good track record in customer relations or if an attractive offer hides a higher administrative risk. How the Customer Satisfaction Index will be calculated The Customer Satisfaction Index, abbreviated as CSI, will have a maximum value of 100. A CSI of 100 indicates a situation where no complaints have been filed with ANRE against the supplier, and the supplier has received no justified complaints directly from customers. The CSI calculation has three main components. Complaints received by ANRE from final customers against the supplier will carry a weight of 50% . Justified complaints addressed directly to the supplier will have a weight of 30% . Justified complaints left unresolved within the legal timeframe will account for 20% . The formula places the greatest weight on complaints escalated to ANRE, but does not ignore the supplier's internal records. It also factors in how many customer complaints are deemed justified, as well as how many of these remain unresolved on time. This shift changes the market logic. Suppliers will no longer be evaluated solely on their commercial offers, but also on their operational capacity to bill accurately, communicate, register complaints, analyze them, and respond within deadlines. Green, yellow, red: what the consumer will see Depending on their CSI, suppliers will be assigned a color. Red will signal poor results, yellow will indicate average results, and green will mark good performance. According to documentation published by Profit.ro , the thresholds indicated in the draft are: red for a CSI below 50, yellow for the intermediate range, and green for a CSI of at least 75. The colors will be displayed in the interactive web applications Electricity Supply Standard Offer Comparison Tool and Natural Gas Supply Standard Offer Comparison Tool . Until these features are developed within the applications, ANRE will publish the CSI values for each supplier on its website. This integration into the comparison tools is the most important part for the public. Consumers will not have to search separately for complaint histories if the system is fully implemented. They will be able to see, alongside the price offer, a synthetic indicator of the supplier's performance. Complaints become market pressure Until now, a complaint was primarily an individual defense mechanism. A customer complained about an invoice, a delay, poor communication, or a contractual issue. The new system can transform complaints into a collective market signal. If a supplier accumulates numerous confirmed complaints, justified grievances, or unresolved complaints within deadlines, this will become visible to all potential customers. A red rating or a poor CSI can directly impact the company's commercial appeal. The stakes for suppliers become both reputational and economic. Service quality will no longer be just a regulatory obligation or an internal call-center issue. It will factor directly into contracting decisions, alongside price, offer duration, and commercial terms. Complaint reporting goes digital The ANRE project also includes the digitalization of reporting. Suppliers will be able to submit complaints received from final customers online, through a platform provided on the ANRE website. Until this platform is developed, reports will be submitted via email. The…