RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, has imposed fines on six of seven independent electricity suppliers questioned by the authority for failing to hand over regulated surcharges included in electricity bills to grid operators.

The six independent suppliers were handed fines ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of euros for not relaying surcharge amounts to the IPTO and DEDDIE/HEDNO grid operators.

These surcharges include network transmission and distribution usage fees as well as RES-supporting ETMEAR payments made by consumers through electricity bills.

In their defense, suppliers argued that they chose to not relay collected surcharge amounts to the grid operators to offset greater amounts owed to them by the operators, including anticipated returns from the RES special account surplus for 2018. RAE refused to accept this argument.

As for the main power utility PPC, which has delayed relaying to operators enormous surcharge sums worth millions, it had been summoned to a preceding hearing, about a year ago, by RAE and fined 2.8 million euros.

The surcharge amounts owed by the country’s independent electricity suppliers to the grid operators constitute just a tiny fraction of amounts owed by PPC.