In brief

  • The advance the State pays to electricity and gas suppliers, out of the money in the bill compensation scheme, rises from 40% to 60% of the amount claimed for settlement.
  • Suppliers that have already received the 40% can claim the remaining 20%, through an additional request filed within 30 days of the law entering into force, that is by 30 September 2026.
  • The data needed for settlement and reconciliation can still be entered until 31 December 2026, a deadline the law does not move, although it increases the amounts that have to be processed by then.
Act: Law no. 179/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 723 of 28 August 2026
In force from: 31 August 2026

The State is raising by 20 percentage points the money it pays in advance to energy suppliers, out of the scheme through which it compensated customers’ bills. Law no. 179/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 723 of 28 August 2026 and promulgated by Decree no. 732/2026, raises from 40% to 60% the share paid immediately, before the National Energy Regulatory Authority has fully validated the amounts. It is the third intervention this August in the electricity market, after the one through which industrial consumers began to be paid for cutting their consumption at peak hours.

The law amends two emergency ordinances that carried the bill capping scheme one after the other: Government Emergency Ordinance no. 27/2022, for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, and Government Emergency Ordinance no. 6/2025, for 1 April 2025 to 30 June 2025 on electricity and 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 on natural gas. The mechanism was the same in both: the supplier billed the customer at the capped price, and the difference up to the real price was settled by the State, through the Ministry of Energy or through the National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection.

What changes now is the pace at which that money arrives. Until this law, the supplier received 40% of the amount claimed on the basis of the settlement request, before validation by ANRE, and the rest afterwards. From 31 August 2026 it receives 60%, and a supplier that has already collected 40% on older requests can ask for the difference through a separate form.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is one of cash flow. Out of every settlement request, the supplier is entitled to 60% in advance, paid on the basis of its own declaration on its own responsibility, not after the documents have been fully checked. For this payment the law expressly derogates from Article 52(8) of Law no. 500/2002 on public finances, the text that obliges a public institution to recover unjustified advances by the end of the year, with late payment increments calculated from the day the advance was granted.

The pace at which energy money is reckoned is changing on the grid as well: losses on the 110 kV network are now split every 15 minutes, so a single annual operation becomes as many as 35,040.

The second effect is the change in where the money comes from. In the form published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 182 of 28 February 2025, letter a) of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 6/2025 said that the 40% was paid „from the Energy Transition Fund and from other lawfully constituted sources”. The new wording says „from the state budget and from other lawfully constituted sources”.

The third effect concerns the money that comes back. A new letter d) is added, which provides that, if amounts paid have to be recovered from the supplier and the recovery does not happen within the 10 working days set out in letter c), interest and late payment penalties are charged on whatever remains unrecovered, under Articles 174 and 176 of the Fiscal Procedure Code. Until now the text set out the obligation to give the money back, but not the charges that come with being late.

The fourth effect is more discreet, and it too is about money rather than about deadlines. The final date of 31 December 2026 for entering the data needed for monthly settlement and for reconciliation already existed in the February 2025 form of Article 19(4) and stays unchanged. What is rewritten in the same paragraph is the source: the data is entered for the settlement of amounts „from the state budget”, not „from the Energy Transition Fund”. In paragraph (5), what changes is who makes the payment: the settlement of reconciliation invoices moves from the budget of the Ministry of Energy or of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Youth and Social Solidarity to the Ministry of Energy or the National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection, still from the state budget. The supplier’s obligation to return the difference within 10 working days of the notification by ANRE existed before as well, and the text keeps it.

The fifth effect concerns the reconciliation of volumes under the older scheme. In Government Emergency Ordinance no. 27/2022, Article 23^2(2) is rewritten and sets the rule in both directions: if more was distributed than was billed, the resulting amounts are negative and the supplier returns them to the state budget; if less was distributed, the amounts are positive and the supplier is entitled to claim them from the budget.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The percentage is the visible change, and the law says so itself, in the article on application: 60% established by this law against the 40% applicable until it entered into force. Those 20 points of difference are exactly what can be claimed retroactively, through the additional request.

Less visible, but just as important, is what has disappeared from the text. In the 2025 form, letter a) also fixed a deadline: the 40% was paid „within 10 working days of the transfer of the funds for that purpose by the Ministry of Finance”. The new letter a) no longer contains any payment deadline. The 10 working days do remain in letter b), for the payment of the balance once ANRE has validated the amounts, they remain in letter c), for the money the supplier owes back, and they remain in the transitional rule as well, for the payment of the 20% claimed through the additional request.

The way suppliers are split into two categories has changed as well. Those that the State has already paid 40% on an older request have to file an additional request, within a window of 30 days, in order to receive the remaining 20%. Those that have not yet been paid anything receive 60% straight away, with no further formality. The same amount, two routes and two different risks of losing it.

Finally, an obligation has been added for the administration. Within 30 days of entry into force, the minister of energy and the minister of labour, family, youth and social solidarity, after consulting ANRE, have to issue a joint order on the analysis, verification, validation and payment of settlement requests, plus the funding of the accounts out of which the payment is made.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • Suppliers get back faster the money they advanced to customers, and the pressure on their treasury drops by 20 percentage points of every request.
  • A supplier that has already collected 40% is not left on the old rule: it can claim the difference, through a form whose content is fixed in the law itself.
  • Amounts that have to be returned to the State now carry interest and late payment penalties, so being late with the repayment is no longer free.
  • The source of the money becomes expressly the state budget, in place of the Energy Transition Fund, so payment no longer depends on the balance of a dedicated fund.

What remains a problem

  • The new letter a) no longer sets any deadline for the State to pay the 60%, although the previous wording had 10 working days.
  • The additional request form in the annex is addressed only to the Ministry of Energy, although the rule also applies to requests settled through the National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection.
  • The window of 30 days for the additional request closes on the very day the deadline given to the ministers for the joint order that clarifies the procedure expires.
  • Payment of the 20% depends on a transfer by the Ministry of Finance which itself has no deadline, so the 10 working days start from a date the supplier cannot anticipate.
  • The closing date of the scheme stays 31 December 2026, although the law opens a new window for requests and increases the amounts to be settled by that same date.

Practical advice

  1. If you have already collected 40% on a settlement request, file the additional request by 30 September 2026. The deadline is 30 days from 31 August 2026, and the law makes no provision for reinstatement.
  2. For each older request, check who made the payment, the Ministry of Energy or the National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection. The model in the annex is written for the Ministry of Energy, so on the agency route adapt the addressee and keep proof that you filed.
  3. Calculate the 20% against the value of the initial settlement request, not against the balance still uncollected. The law says expressly that the percentage is determined by reference to the 60% and to the 40%.
  4. Use the model in the annex to Law no. 179/2026 for the additional request. It also contains the declaration on your own responsibility required by Article 9(7) of the ordinance, so the form covers both requirements. Annex no. 3 to the ordinance is the model for that declaration, while the ordinary settlement request has its own models, Annexes no. 1 and 2.
  5. If you have not yet received anything on a request filed before 31 August 2026, do not file an additional request. In that case the 60% applies directly, and one more request speeds nothing up.
  6. Enter all settlement and reconciliation data on the ANRE platform before 31 December 2026 and keep the confirmation. After that date, the text provides no way of completing it.

Frequently asked questions

Does anything change for the customer who receives the bill?
No. The law concerns exclusively the relationship between the State and suppliers, that is the pace at which the budget settles for the supplier the difference between the capped price and the real price. Bills already issued in the periods covered by the two ordinances remain unchanged.
Until when can the additional request for the 20% difference be filed?
Within 30 days of the law entering into force. The law was published on 28 August 2026 and enters into force 3 days after publication, that is on 31 August 2026, so the window closes on 30 September 2026.
How long does the State have to pay the 20% claimed additionally?
Within 10 working days of the transfer of the funds for that purpose by the Ministry of Finance into the account of the Ministry of Energy or of the National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection. The law sets no deadline for the transfer itself.
What happens if ANRE sets an amount at reconciliation lower than the amount settled?
The supplier returns the difference within 10 working days of being notified of the value determined by ANRE. If it fails to do so within that period, interest and late payment penalties are charged on the amounts not recovered, under Articles 174 and 176 of the Fiscal Procedure Code.
What is the last day on which data can still be entered on the platform?
31 December 2026, both for the data needed for monthly settlement and for the data needed for reconciliation, under Article 19(4) of Government Emergency Ordinance no. 6/2025. The deadline has existed since February 2025 and has not been moved by this law.
Which money is used to pay the 60%?
The state budget and other lawfully constituted sources. The previous wording of the same letter pointed to the Energy Transition Fund.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • The annex, the additional request form, the „Către” (To) line. The form is addressed exclusively to the Ministry of Energy and states that the amount claimed is to be „borne by the budget of the Ministry of Energy”, although Article IV(2)A also applies to requests for which the 40% payment was made by the National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection, and letter c) of the same text provides for payment through „the Ministry of Energy or the National Agency for Payments and Social Inspection”. Government Emergency Ordinance no. 6/2025 had solved exactly this split with two separate forms, Annex no. 1 addressed to the agency and Annex no. 2 addressed to the ministry, both published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 182 of 28 February 2025. Since the law requires the content of the request to follow „the annex which forms an integral part of this law”, a supplier that settled through the agency either files a form naming the wrong institution and the wrong budget, or has nothing to file, and the deadline of 30 days extinguishes its right to the 20%.

Editorial analysis

The real problem the law solves is old and concrete: the supplier collects the capped price from the customer but buys the energy at the market price, and finances the difference out of its own money until the State settles it. Moving the advance from 40% to 60% shortens exactly that interval, and the right to claim the 20 points retroactively on requests already paid shows that Parliament wanted the measure to catch the past too, not only the future.

What you do not see reading the law from one end to the other is what has been deleted. Letter a) from 2025 had two components, a percentage and a deadline: 40%, paid „within 10 working days of the transfer of the funds for that purpose by the Ministry of Finance”. The new letter a) keeps the percentage, raises it and gives up the deadline. The 10 working days have not disappeared from the ordinance. They remain in letter b), for the payment of the balance once ANRE has validated the amounts; in letter c), for the money the supplier gives back; in the reworded Article 19(5), for the return after reconciliation; and in the transitional rule, for the payment of the 20%. The only place they have been taken out of is the very letter the law rewrites in the supplier’s favour, so the advance, the part whose percentage has just been raised, is the only payment obligation in the scheme left without a due date.

The same asymmetry shows in the treatment of interest. The derogation from Article 52(8) of Law no. 500/2002 takes the advance out from under the general rule, which requires unjustified amounts to be recovered with increments calculated from the day the advance was granted. In its place, the new letter d) sets interest and penalties that start running only after the 10 working days from the notification by ANRE have expired. In other words, in the same act, the advance grows by half and the interest clock starts later. For a supplier that pays back on time the change is neutral; for one that is late, it is a relief.

The calendar is worth reading as a whole as well. The law enters into force on 31 August 2026. From that date suppliers have 30 days for the additional request, so until 30 September 2026, and the ministers have the same 30 days for the joint order that establishes how requests are analysed, validated and paid. The two deadlines expire on the same day, which means the procedure can be published on the very day the filing window closes. Then 92 days remain until 31 December 2026, the date after which no more data can be entered. That last date has not moved: it has been written into the ordinance since February 2025, and the law, although it opens a new window for requests and increases the amounts to be processed, leaves it exactly where it was. The electricity compensation period under Government Emergency Ordinance no. 6/2025 had ended on 30 June 2025, so the accounts of the scheme stay open for 18 months after the last month compensated.

What should be changed

  • A second model of additional request, addressed to the agency. It would remove the only formal obstacle in the whole retroactive mechanism and would put suppliers on the agency route in the same position as those on the ministry route, before the deadline of 30 days produces irreversible effects.
  • Putting the payment deadline back into letter a). Without it, the only benchmark left for the supplier is administrative goodwill, and the right to 60% in advance becomes a right with no due date, which is exactly the opposite of the point of raising the percentage.
  • A deadline for the transfer by the Ministry of Finance as well. All the payment terms of 10 working days start from that transfer, which itself has no date. A deadline there would turn a chain with a loose first link into one that can be measured from end to end.
  • The joint order before the filing window, not at the end of it. If the deadline for the order were 10 days instead of 30, suppliers would file their additional requests already knowing the verification rules, and the administration would not receive a wave of requests under a procedure that has not been published.
  • Periodic publication of the state of settlements. A monthly picture of the amounts claimed, advanced, validated and returned, for each of the two ordinances, would show publicly how much the scheme still has to close before 31 December 2026 and would make the very target of that deadline verifiable.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 723 of 28 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 119 KB the act starts on page 2

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.