hidroelectrica ihidro

Given the recent surge in interest in Hidroelectrica (and Romanians trying to save money now that energy subsidies for everyone are ending), I took a deeper dive into Hidroelectrica, a publicly traded company on BVB under the symbol H2O.

Varianta în limba română pe FaṭăCarte Meta Zamolxis.

• Switching to Hidroelectrica as you “hydro” provider isn’t as straightforward as they claim it to be.
• While logic dictates that H2O should be a great, safe investment, there are dragons ahead.

Having been bombarded by mass media messages about switching to Hidroelectrica from my current “hydro” provider, PPC. In so doing, I’ve noticed that I’m not alone, as the “iHidro” app is the top business app on Google Play Romania, which is a very recent phenomenon.

Let me start with a news summary based on my search beyond W’s history.

• 24.01.17 – contract H2O advantages and disadvantages, from one of the many Fb groups (hn-avdezh2o); advantages are the price, disadvantages are multiple minor issues such as late invoices, errors, inability to pay online
• 24.05.13 – somehow, H2O’s decision to update its payment options is news, having a total of about 500K clients (hn-ofrt)
• 25.02.25 – Elena Gheorghe thinks they “rapidly and efficiently” managed to offer Google/Apple Pay options to the now 600K clients (hn-hefctr)
• 25.06.03 – Energy Minister Burduja tells Romanians to all go to H2O whereas financial director Marian Fetita says that H2O can’t take them all and doesn’t want them (hn-minmut)
• 25.06.11 – In an official communique, H2O states that they can take as many clients as necessary; we learn they have 630K customers (hn-h2omut)

I then looked for ANRE’s “comparators” (anre-comps).

For this exercise, only the electricity one (comp-e) gave me the following for Bucharest, with 100kWh consumption at 100 RON, starting with 07.01

1. SPEEH H2O Viitor Hidro (oferta concurentiala) 1.04
2. SPEEH H2O Serviciu Universal (oferta serviciu universal) 1.21
3. Nova 3 luni 1.30
4. Nova 12 luni 1.31
5. MET SU RE 1.34
6. MET RE 1.34
7. EM 1.34
8. Entera 1.36 (this one has the URL entered incorrectly)
9. Anchor 1.42
10. Electrica F 1.43
11. Engie 1.44
12. Getica 1.45
13. mvm 1.45
14. omv 1.47
15. eon 1.50
16. sceo 1.51
17. mt 1.51
18. luxten 1.52 (URL incorrect)
19. premier 1.53
20. ppc 1.55
21. renovatio 1.57
22. verbund 1.63
23. vimetco 1.69
24. dacia 1.69
25. transenergo 1.92
26. photovoltaic 1.92 (PPC?!?)
27. entrex 1.93
28. eft p 1.99
29. eft f 2.00

As you can see above if you click, H2O has two different offers, “concurrential” (competitive?) and “universal service”, but reading the explanation, I can’t quite make sense of it.

I initiated the “switch” from the main client portal (h2o-cp). I wasn’t able to create an account in the ihidro app, but I went to the ihidro webpage, where I was successful. The webpage and app share their credentials so I was able to login, but my account is empty. I also chose to participate in their contest (if you choose “no” once, apparently you can never participate, not that it matters).

If you’re like me, you might wonder how possible is it to invest in H2O. I have a few brokerage accounts in Canada but none give me access to BVB. I could initiate trading on my Revolut account, but their fees are quite high. Let’s just see what information we can uncover.

First and foremost, this corporation seems to be a safe investment, considering that it simply rips off investments made in the communist era, with the lowest operating costs, but a quick look at the past shows that the “smart guys” that took it over have recently managed to bankrupt it in 2012. More recently, “experts” such as Razvan Nicolescu and Andrei Caramitru, expressed a desire to see H2O merged with Romgaz and Electrica (hn-mrg). We also learn that power generation in Romania went down 21% in 2024, while imports were up 132% or +959400 MWh to 1686 mil MWh; consumption was down by 1,4% to 4458 mil MWh, of which –4,8% or 3,36 mil MWh in the economy (prft-prodenlo). We also learn from the Prosumers Association that Romania has some of the most expensive energy in the world by producers prices (hn-prosm, ps-an). Hidroelectrica took over one of the oldest and now bankrupt manufacturing plants in Romania, UCM Resita (prft-ucmrsta) and paid almost 1 million euro for a new webpage (prft-pweb).

The company has extensive info on its website (h2o-rep). More can be found at BVB, YhF (no YhR!), tw, sa, lab, ms, sws, bvbr.

Sources / More info: comp-g, nova-vl, met, em, ent, anch, ef, engie, getica, mvm, omv, eon, sceo, mt, luxten, premier, ppc, renovatio, verbund, anre-comps, vimetco, dacia, transenergo, photovoltaic, entrex, eftp, eftf, h2o-cp, comp-e, hn-srchhe, hn-prosm, ps-an, prft-ucmrsta, hn-mrg, hn-hefctr, hn-ofrt, hn-minmut, hn-h2omut, prft-prodenlo, prft-pweb, h2o-rep, hn-avdezh2o – fb-he, fb-hegc, fb-che, fb-gche, fb-phe, fb-hesipd, fb-ches

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