At its meeting held today, with representatives of the Minister of Economy, Energy Regulatory Agency, and Electric Power Industry of Montenegro JSC (EPCG) in attendance, the Committee held a consultative hearing on: “Setting the price of electric energy and determining tariff packages”.

Pursuant to Article 67 of Rules of Procedure of the Parliament of Montenegro, the meeting was also attended by representatives of the NGO Network for Affirmation of Non-Governmental Sector (MANS).

Following the discussion lasting several hours, the Committee had the opportunity to learn about the situation in the energy sector with special focus on the area of setting the price of electric energy and determining tariff packages, increasing the price of electric energy for 2019, as well as additional conditions of supply through different supply models (basic, blue, red and green model) thus the EPCG for the first time enabled the consumers to select one of the offered tariff models of supply, depending on their spending.

Furthermore, the Committee was informed about the trends of the electric energy prices for supply of distribution consumers in Montenegro in the previous ten-year period, average electric energy prices in the region and the EU states in 2018, which in Montenegro is at the level of about 50% of the average price of the EU states etc.

During the discussion, numerous questions were asked and dilemmas were voiced with regard to the calculation of electric energy prices, amount of losses included in the electric energy price, implementation of Articles 249 and 250 of the Law on Energy, calculation of VAT, models for stimulation of production of renewable energy, activities with regard to reviving the distribution network, financial effects of introducing new tariff packages and awareness of citizens i.e. consumers about the said new tariff packages, activities implemented with regard to improvement of the quality of the distribution network and reduction of problems relating to electric energy supply, etc.