Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic said on Thursday that the city administration will challenge the tender conducted by the Croatian Energy Regulatory Agency (HERA), which resulted in the city of Zagreb getting a new gas supplier in the next four years.

“We are waiting for the official decision, we will analyse our legal options and we will challenge it (the result of the tender). I repeat that there is no such tender for the gas market anywhere in the European Union,” Tomasevic said after the City of Zagreb’s company lost the tender.

From 1 October 2024, the company Medjimurje Plin will take over the task of supplying the city of Zagreb with gas, after this task was previously performed by the gas supplier Gradska Plinara Zagreb – Opskrba (GPZO) and the new company was selected in a public tender.

The regulatory authority HERA confirmed on Wednesday evening that it had selected Medjimurje Plin based on the criterion of the lowest cost of gas supply and the criterion of the highest permissible share of the individual supplier in the public service obligations.

The best bidder offered a price of €0.0095 per kWH, the regulator said, after the mayor of Zagreb questioned the procedure.

This is a lower price than that offered by the gas supplier Gradska Plinara Zagreb – Opskrba (GPZO), the regulator said on its website.

Mayor: Result of the tender absurd

Tomasevic once again labelled the regulator’s decision as “absurd”.

The new provider will supply 290,000 households with gas from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2027.

When the news about the new provider was announced on Wednesday afternoon, Tomasevic wondered why the company, which had previously supplied 29,000 households, was taking over an area with ten times as many consumers.

“Moreover, the company Medjimurje Plin will now have to leave its customers (in Medjimurje County) to take over Zagreb,” Tomasevic said on Thursday, again raising questions about the logic behind such a move by a public company and about ulterior motives.