New Prosumer Law: ANRE's Draft Rules vs. APCE's Objections — NRG-IA

The Romanian Association of Prosumers and Energy Communities (APCE) is challenging the draft regulations through which the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) is preparing to implement Law No. 160/2026. APCE claims that some of the rights introduced by Parliament are being delayed, bogged down in bureaucracy, or interpreted to the benefit of suppliers. However, the regulations remain under public consultation until August 31, and a comparison of APCE's press release, the text of the law, and ANRE's documents reveals that the situation varies from one mechanism to another. Law No. 160/2026 entered into force on July 26. For prosumers with installations of up to 200 kW per consumption site, the new definition of quantitative compensation (net metering) provides for monthly billing of energy consumed from the grid, energy produced and delivered up to the consumption limit, and excess energy delivered. At the prosumer's request, the supplier is obliged to perform quantitative compensation within a billing period and settle the quantities at the active electricity price specified in the contract, under the conditions established by law. In parallel, the law introduces an additional right for individuals owning installations of up to 27 kW per consumption site. They can use the financial balance resulting from quantitative compensation to offset obligations for other consumption sites registered with the same supplier, or for natural gas bills, provided the gas contracts are also held with the same supplier. For this category, the law allows choosing the allocation of this balance for a contractual period of at least 12 months. ANRE applies monthly billing starting July 26 On August 20, ANRE published two separate draft orders. One regulates the transition period for existing contracts and those concluded until December 31, 2026. The other introduces the new general methodology to be applied starting January 1, 2027. This distinction is essential to understand which provisions of the law are being delayed and which are already being implemented. In the explanatory memorandum of the transitional draft, ANRE specifies that Law No. 160/2026 has eliminated, for energy delivered starting July 26, the creation of any new 24-month quantitative rollover . For this energy, the draft provides for monthly meter reading and data transmission, monthly billing, and the same due date for documents related to energy consumed and energy delivered during the same period. Legacy rights are not erased. Quantities and documents related to energy delivered up to July 25, 2026, remain tracked separately and retain their due dates established under the previous regime. In other words, the 24-month term may continue to apply to energy accumulated before the law was amended, but ANRE's draft explicitly states that no new rollovers of this type will be created for energy delivered after Law No. 160/2026 entered into force. Therefore, this part of the draft does not support the claim that ANRE has maintained the old system for new energy, under which prosumers could wait up to 24 months to monetize their surplus. Monthly billing and the actual payment deadline are two different things One of the points raised by APCE concerns the payment for delivered energy. The association claims that the draft allows suppliers to set the payment deadline, arguing that this solution dilutes the monthly mechanism provided by law. The text of Law No. 160/2026 uses two distinct concepts. The definition of quantitative compensation states that the supplier bills monthly , while Article 73¹ obliges the supplier to settle energy quantities within this process. However, the law does not introduce a single calendar deadline in these articles—expressed as 15, 30, or any other number of days—within which the supplier must transfer any outstanding balance owed to the prosumer. ANRE's transitional draft establishes the same due date for documents regarding delivered energy and consumed energy in the same period. Consequently, ANRE's documents do not foresee a return to the 24-month term for new energy, but neither does the law contain a single maximum payment deadline in days that could be mechanically integrated into the methodology. The difference between monthly billing and the actual due date is one of the issues that the public consultation can clarify before the final version of the order is issued. The mechanism for other consumption sites and gas starts, in the draft, on January 1, 2027 This is where the most distinct timeline discrepancy lies between the entry into force of the law and the architecture chosen by ANRE. The law, in force since July 26, states that individuals with installations of up to 27 kW 'have the right' to use the balance resulting from quantitative compensation for other eligible consumption sites and, under certain conditions, for natural gas bills. The text of the law does not include the date of January 1, 2027, in these…