Annual investments of one billion euros to achieve the energy targets in the PNRR

Our country should make annual investments of one billion euros in order to achieve by 2026 all the targets and objectives passed in the energy chapter in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the participants of the 11th edition of the Energy Forum said yesterday, organized by DC News, which this year was held under the title "Transition to a green Romania, the challenges of the moment".

That's why Sebastian Burduja, the Minister of Energy, announced unprecedented investments in the energy sector: "From non-reimbursable funds, Romania supports the commissioning of many megawatts in the coming years -

9,000 to 10,000. It is an ambitious target. It's true, there are challenges at the network level, which we can address in two ways. On the one hand, let's finance the modernization of the transmission and distribution network, and here we have, as support, the fund for modernization, where, at the level of the Transelectrica system operator, Minister Popescu signed 9 contracts during his mandate and it was a very first useful for Transelectrica. At the level of distribution operators, we have signed 40 plus/minus contracts so far. In total, all investments exceed one billion euros".

For his part, Adrian Câciu, the Minister of Investments and European Projects, stated that our country has all the necessary resources (both natural and investment) to be called an energy hub with major potential.

Minister Câciu mentioned: "Investments in energy cannot be made, as we know, overnight, just like the transition to another type of energy. (...) Much has been said and there has been much skepticism regarding energy investments in Romania. In 2022, instead of all being on the same side of the fence to make the economy work, some have chosen to speculate on the market situation. The government had to step in at that point. And at the same time, the Government had to find financing solutions for massive investments in energy. (...) I express my conviction that Romania is and will become an increasingly important regional energy hub. It has all the prerequisites from the perspective of the resource (both the natural one and the investment one, from the perspective of the players who are on the market) to become such a hub, to provide energy for the region and, why not, for the whole of Europe".

The former Minister of Energy, Virgil Popescu, showed that our country has overcome the energy crisis, but faces new challenges and urged caution: "The trend is towards green, clean energy, and Romania cannot go against the flow. Decarbonization is not possible without nuclear energy, and Romania is a regional leader in nuclear energy, one of its promoters, along with France".

His Majesty stated that "2029-2030 is a feasible horizon for Romania to achieve energy independence" and mentioned that natural gas is used in the energy mix, because it will gradually replace coal.

• 200,000 prosumers, at the end of 2024

Present at the conference, the social-democratic senator Daniel Zamfir emphasized the concrete measures taken by the draft law on prosumers, which was voted within the Economic Commission together with the Energy Commission of the Senate, a law which was sent to the president of the state for re-examination. Mr. Zamfir stated that this bill allows individuals and legal entities that use solar panels for the production of electricity to offset their electricity produced versus consumed.

Daniel Zamfir said: "It is a topic of great interest to absolutely everyone who follows us, because beyond those major projects that need to be done to store electricity, it is a future solution. But the most important thing is that tomorrow we can do something concrete. (...) We want to encourage public institutions to use this renewable energy. It is absolutely unimaginable not to put solar panels on the building of Parliament, Government and other ministries, schools, hospitals and so on to use solar energy during the day".

As for prosumers, if the current growth rate of 4,000-5,000 prosumers per month is maintained, at the end of 2024 we will have 200,000 prosumers, said George Niculescu, president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE).

The head of ANRE said: "On December 31, 2023, there were 110,355 prosumers connected to the networks, a total of 1,442 megawatts. Of these, 95,205 were natural persons, and 15,150 legal persons. We see that legal entities also have the appetite to become prosumers. After one month, on January 31, 2024, we have 114,109 prosumers, about 4,000 more - and 1,502 megawatts, representing an increase of 50 megawatts, 98,203 individuals and 15,906 legal entities. If this rate of growth is maintained, around of 4,000-5,000 prosumers per month, by the end of the year we will reach 200,000 prosumers, a considerable figure".

George Vişan, director of the Transelectrica Energy Markets Department, listed the steps that our country must take in the framework of the sustainable transition to green energy and showed that renewable energy is not cheap at all.

Mr. Vişan said: "All this renewable energy is not cheap. Opportunities exist, but caution should characterize us. (...) Along the way, we must be very aware of increasing the degree of public acceptability for all this renewable energy which is not cheap and the support schemes involve payments, even if initially the schemes will be financed from European funds, European funds ... which are also financed from our money in the end. The development of the state's institutional capabilities is important because it must also face the challenges of the private environment and the development of the system. I wouldn't necessarily refer to investments, I know it's a big passion to talk about investments, but the energy system can work based on methodology and processes. We are in an integrated energy system and I would like to remember one important thing, although it is often said that we want independence, I would request that we redefine what energy independence means because we are in an integrated system and energy flows flow freely , so that Member States and European energy systems can support all the enormous renewable energy that will come in the coming years. (...) And as a general conclusion - we must benefit from certain opportunities that are offered to us, with the prudence of fitting in both from an economic point of view, not to have losses, to have gains, and to keep the possibility the operation of the Romanian energy system without operational problems. In the end, it is our responsibility to ensure the stability and security of the Romanian energy system".

• Important investment projects at Hidroelectrica

Regarding the investment projects, Radu-Ioan Constantin, Member of the Board and Administrative Director of Hidroelectrica, presented some of the respective company's projects.

The Hidroelectrica representative said:

"Our projects and investment programs are very diversified and cover a wide area of potential developments. There are exact company projects that we want, at least the management plan for the next four years. I could mention here that we definitely have projects to re-engineer the company, Vidraru being at the top of the list with the opening of bids that we hope to have on April 8th. There we are talking about a project with an amount allocated around 900 million lei. We also have Râul Mare Retezat, another important project of Hidroelectrica, an amount of over 679 million lei. (...) With the BVB listing that took place last year, we have a very precise calendar with the dates that we transmit publicly. We are in an area of high accuracy on the data we transmit to investors. On Thursday, March 28, the financial results for investors will be presented, the results related to the previous year. We are in a very dynamic area with absolutely all the plans that we want to develop within the company".

Daniela Dărăban, the executive director of the Federation of Associations of Energy Utility Companies (ACUE) stated that the amount invested annually in energy projects should be considerably increased if we want to reach the targets set out in the PNRR.

The ACUE representative said: "From what we have calculated for reaching the targets, so only the mandatory scenario, the mandatory targets, we must almost triple this average investment per year. If we make a calculation, investments of almost 6 billion lei per year are required. Basically, instead of two billion lei, we have to invest one billion euros".