Price rise verdict should be ready by September, says Polish regulator
The vice president of Polish energy regulator URE, Marek Woszczyk, has said the watchdog is assessing a request by PGNiG, the Polish gas incumbent, to increase gas tariffs for the second time this year. Woszczyk said he expected URE to have a final decision on the price rise by mid-September.
On 12th August, PGNiG requested that it increase its gas price for all customers by an average of 17.4%. If the request is granted on time, PGNiG plans to raise prices on the 1st October.
However, a spokeswoman for URE told ICIS Heren that the regulator’s guidelines stipulate the process should take 30 days and in complicated cases this can be extended up to 60 days. If this were to happen, prices could not rise before the start of November, as 14 days have to pass after the regulator grants its approval. The spokeswoman added that should URE require further information concerning the intended price hike, the time taken by PGNiG to reply would not be included in the 30-day period.
PGNiG has said the change in gas tariffs is required due to the increasing import prices, which have also risen because of the gains on the oil market. A statement read: “The current levels of oil product prices are markedly above the levels which were used to calculate the [gas] prices and fee rates in the current tariff.”
In April this year, URE allowed PGNiG to increase its gas price by 14.3% (see ESGM 14.071). Initially, PGNiG requested URE permit it to increase its prices by 33.7%, which the regulator rejected as unjustified. The reason given by PGNiG for the hike in April was also the increasing cost of oil.
At that time, the regulator said there would be no further increases in the gas price for a year, unless the relative cost of imports also rose. TMM
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