ENERGY MINISTRY WANTS TO UPDATE THE ENERGY STRATEGY, BY MID-OCTOBER Cutişteanu: "The amendment of the Energy strategy in one month - a bad joke"

The amendment of the Energy Strategy in one month is a bad joke, says Jack Cutişteanu, CEO of Petprod, reacting to the announcement made by the representatives of the Ministry of Energy, according to which the Romanian authorities intend to update the draft of the Energy Strategy of Romania for the 2017-2030 period by mid October.

In this context, Jack Cutişteanu told us: "The truth is that what the people of the previous team did wasn't completed, and what the current governments want to do is unknown for now.

The current strategy draft is very well written, but it doesn't deal with the issue of investments and where the funds for them will come from. Also, it doesn't specify what will happen in a few years, when coal plants reach their end of life.

That is why, the strategy needs to be completed, but I don't know if the people in the government are capable of doing that. In Romania, every single time the minister of energy is replaced, the first thing that the new head of energy does is to say that the old strategy isn't good and that it needs to be replaced. More than that, the representatives of the Ministry have said that they intend for the new strategy to be ready in one month. But in one month they can barely make a copy of the current document and write a foreword. The rewriting of the energy strategy in one month is a bad joke".

In the opinion of Ion Lungu, the president of the Association of Energy Suppliers in Romania (AFEER), on principle, any decision made concerning a strategy is a political one. The head of the AFEER told us: "I am convinced that the Energy Strategy will not be fundamentally changed, but the current government needs to change something in it, to put its own brand on it and to correlate it with the current government program. Each government makes up a new strategy". Mr. Lungu expects for further consultations to take place about the changes made to the Strategy, which means that it can be approved as soon as possible.

The Ministry of Energy has set up a working group that is going to update the draft of the Energy Strategy, with the document set to include a list with the priority investments in the sector, such as reactors 3 and 4 of Cernavodă, the hydroelectric plant of Tarniţa and a new group at the Oltenia Energy Complex, as stated by Andrei Maioreanu, state secretary in the Ministry of Energy, quoted by Agerpres.

According to him, the working group includes the three state secretaries in the Ministry, as well as representatives of the ANRE, ANRM, Hidroelectrica, Nuclearelectrica, the two energy complexes, Transelectrica, the Romanian national Committee of the World Energy Council, as well as the Romanian Academy. The first meeting of the group took place on Thursday, August 31st.

"The approval through parliamentary procedure means added value. Political parties, companies, unions, academia, will be consulted", Maioreanu said.

According to him, the updating of the Strategy was necessary, because the existing draft has predominantly taken into account the objectives expressed at the level of the European Union and less of the objectives of the Romanian energy system: "The existing project does not reflect a desire for the development of the area, but it is focused on conserving and reducing the area of activity. That is why there is no list of new investments on a national level. The draft inaccurately, incompletely and incoherently presents some actual statuses, such as the state of the primary energy reserves, such as those of lignite or coal. More specifically, statuses have been included without a very clear analysis. Also, the draft does not show the current state of the production and transport system of all energy forms. Two very important objectives are missing that we are proposing: increasing Romania's energy contribution on the regional and European markets by tapping the national primary resources and assuring the access to electricity and thermal energy for all consumers. To that end, we are going to continue the electrification program and the work towards improving the profitability of the heating systems".

According to the quoted source, the new strategy project will rely on the following objectives: energy security, improving energy efficiency, investments, environmental protection. We need to prioritize our investment goals and there will be a list of very important investment objectives. Also the strategy will take into account the investment programs of each individual company.

Romania's energy strategy put up for consultation at the end of 2016 had five fundamental objectives: energy security, competitive energy markets, the basis of a competitive economy, clean energy and the sustainability of the energy sector, the modernizing of the energy governance system and the protection of vulnerable consumers and the reduction of energy poverty.

The representative of the Ministry of Energy also said that Romania can fulfill its energy commitments to the European Union through its own energy mix.