ANRE mandates 80% consumption alerts & free online accounts — NRG-IA

The monthly bill will no longer have to be the first indication that energy consumption has exceeded expectations. ANRE has announced a major amendment to the Regulation on the supply of electricity to final customers: suppliers will be required to provide free online accounts, and customers will be able to activate an alert when they reach a set threshold of up to 80% of the monthly consumption estimated in their consumption agreement. The notification can be sent via SMS, email, or other electronic channels agreed upon with the supplier. This measure changes the relationship between consumers and their bills. Until now, for many customers, actual consumption only became visible after the bill was issued or after manually checking the meter index. The new mechanism shifts this information to mid-month, allowing for a response before the end of the billing cycle. The alert is not automatic for all customers The notification will not be sent automatically to all electricity consumers. Customers must activate the service through the online account provided by the supplier. There, they can set the threshold at which they wish to receive the alert, up to a maximum of 80% of the monthly consumption estimated in the consumption agreement. The message sent by the supplier must contain: the consumption recorded up to that point; the monthly consumption estimated in the consumption agreement; the percentage already reached; information on how to adjust consumption. The notification is for informational purposes only. It does not automatically reduce the bill, stop consumption, modify the contract price, or change the payment obligation. The actual utility of the system depends on two conditions: the consumption agreement must closely match the household's real profile, and the supplier must receive sufficiently frequent data from the metering operator. A consumption agreement left unchanged for years can make the alert a less precise tool. For example, a household that has installed air conditioning, purchased an electric vehicle, switched to electric heating, or changed its number of occupants may have a consumption profile completely different from the one originally declared. Free online account for every electricity customer The deadline set by ANRE for implementing the online account is October 1, 2026. The account must be provided free of charge for the duration of the supply contract and must allow access to consumption data broken down hourly, daily, monthly, and annually, depending on the meter type. Customers must also be able to view their billing history, payments made, cost structure, contractual documents, and self-read meter data. Suppliers must also provide graphical representations of consumption, comparisons with previous periods, options to update contact details, and the ability to view the contract. For the consumer, the stakes are higher than the simple digitization of the bill. A functional account can show whether high consumption is a one-off or repetitive, whether it occurs during a specific time of day, and whether bills are rising due to energy consumed, a change in contract price, or other billed components. The data must be downloadable in a standard, interoperable, and reusable electronic format. However, the update frequency depends on the data provided by the metering operator. In other words, a smart meter and an active metering infrastructure can make the tool far more useful than in the case of a consumption point where data arrives rarely or with delays. What a consumer must do after October 1 Once the obligation comes into effect, customers should check a few simple things: whether the supplier has provided a free online account; whether the displayed consumption data is up to date; whether they can view past bills and payments; whether they can activate the consumption alert; whether the contact details for SMS and email are correct; whether the value in the consumption agreement still corresponds to their actual electricity consumption pattern. For an apartment that consumes more in the summer, the alert threshold can be particularly useful during months with high air conditioning usage. For a household that consumes more in winter, its utility may arise during periods of electric heating, heat pump operation, or electric vehicle charging. The alert is not a consumption cap. It is a signal that the household is approaching its estimated level for that month. Exit fees become harder to justify arbitrarily ANRE is also introducing stricter rules for early termination fees applied to fixed-price, fixed-term contracts. A supplier may only charge such a fee if it is clearly communicated before signing, explicitly included in the contract, and can be justified by a direct economic loss caused by the customer's departure. The amount cannot exceed that loss. The methodology must be transparent and verifiable. It must take into account the difference between the contract price and a…