Here we have cheaper electricity. Until yesterday, HEP was trying in every way to convince us that the price of electricity must rise (remember Radimir Čačić and the ultimate argument called ‘the market’) because, as Čačić would say again, ‘that’s just how it is’.
HEP, after all, must invest something so that politicians can boast about the growth of investments. And from where, if not by increasing prices? They surely won’t reduce the number of employed cadres and at least slightly rationalize operations.
Everything worked when you are a monopolist. Consumers have no choice but to agree to be skinned, with or without an explanation. With a monopolist, nothing can ever be cheaper, and there is always a reason for higher prices. Although market liberalization is not without its flaws, and the experience from telecommunications in Croatia teaches us that liberalization can be slow and insufficient because the monopolist always fights tooth and nail for their position, the news that competition is coming to the electricity market and bringing lower prices is hard to find a flaw in.
In the sea of those who welcome the arrival of competition, there are, predictably, opponents. It is interesting how the argument against liberalization immediately clung to the fact that ‘foreign bloodsuckers’ are coming, after all, to destroy our national electricity company. And why are we, as ‘owners’, happy that competition is coming to destroy us? The argument that we are all owners of HEP was summarized by one forum user in the statement ‘everyone who has a citizenship has a share in HEP’.
In principle, in theory, maybe so. I, for example, have a citizenship, but I do not have a single share in HEP. Maybe, in the future, if an IPO happens or something like that. Right now, I only have substantial bills from HEP for which I was explained that they must rise because that is how it is in the market and because the company must increase profits to have something to invest. Meanwhile, it was coldly ignored who and how manages the company and extracts money from it. And then the Slovenians and Austrians come who offer a lower bill. And if it’s just by one percent, that’s enough. The rest is the satisfaction that maybe (a big maybe) political and nepotistic employed will understand that the company must be run in a much different way, otherwise it will not exist. That’s just how it is, and not price increases. After all, HEP quickly realized that now, by some miracle, electricity can indeed be cheaper.
