Green energy projects, blocked by the interpretation of the law on the ANRE - Transelectrica route

Two projects for the realization of green energy production capacities, from renewable sources, are currently blocked on the route of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE)-Transelectrica due to the interpretation of the texts of the incident normative acts by the officials of the two institutions, but also because of some political interests as revealed to us by sources within the only electricity transmission operator in our country.

It is about the projects regarding the construction of the photovoltaic power plants Vădeni 1 and Vădeni 2 in Brăila County, which together would have a total production capacity of 300 Megawatts per hour, projects that would be implemented by SC Renew Delta Energy SRL and SC Rogvaiv Energy, both controlled by businessman Ion Badea. The two projects have been blocked since March 8, 2024, when according to the legislation the Technical Connection Approval (ATR) expired, although on March 7 the companies requested an extension of this term. However, since then and until now, neither Transelectrica nor ANRE have solved the problem, although more than five months have passed since the request submitted by the two companies.

According to a response received from ANRE, following a request that we sent to the regulatory authority, between 22.04.2024 and 08.07.2024, it carried out a control action at the Transelectrica company, with the purpose of verifying the issues notified through the address registered under no. 49407/29.03.2024, by the companies Rogvaiv Energy SRL and Renew Delta Energy SRL regarding the way of solving the requests to conclude the connection contract registered with the only national electricity transmission operator.

The response received from ANRE states: "Following the control action, CN Transelectrica S.A. was penalized for contravention with a fine of 10,000 lei, for non-compliance with the provisions of art. 37 paragraph (1) of the Regulation on the connection of users to electric networks of public interest, approved by ANRE Order no. 59/02.08.2013, published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 517/19.08.2013, with subsequent amendments and additions. Also, the compliance measure was ordered, that of resuming the process of connecting the photovoltaic power plants Vădeni 1 and Vădeni 2 to the grid from the moment of its suspension, respectively from the stage of concluding the connection contract, taking into account the documentation submitted by to the users of Renew Delta Energy SRL and Rogvaiv Energy SRL on 07.03.2024, in accordance with the provisions of the Regulation on the connection of users to public interest electrical networks, approved by ANRE Order no. 59/02.08.2013, with subsequent amendments and additions. Therefore, the measure provided for in the record of finding and sanctioning the contraventions does not imply the conclusion of the connection contracts, but the resumption of the connection process by reanalyzing the requests for the conclusion of the connection contracts and their related documentation in accordance with the provisions of Section 5 from the Regulation regarding the connection of users to public interest electrical networks, approved by ANRE Order no. 59/2013, with subsequent amendments and additions. The measure ordered by the ascertaining agent has the role of remedying an existing non-compliant situation, identified within the control action, being ordered based on the provisions of art. 25 paragraph (1) letter. d and respectively art. 25 para. (2) letter b) of the Regulation on detection, notification and sanctioning of deviations from the regulations issued in the field of energy applicable to the control activity carried out by the National Regulatory Authority in the Energy Field, approved by ANRE Order no. 62/2013, with subsequent amendments and additions".

However, the answer provided by ANRE is an incomplete one, which leaves things in the uncertainty I had when I sent the request to the respective public institution. We mention that we submitted a set of four questions to ANRE, of which it should have provided an answer to the first three. Unfortunately, the officials of the regulatory authority answered the second question only in half, their answer defying logic, transparency of work in a public institution and common sense.

Here are the three questions that ANRE officials should have answered according to the documentation they have at the institution's headquarters in the Vădeni 1 and Vădeni 2 projects:

"1. What is ANRE's opinion regarding the Vădeni 1 and Vădeni 2 projects? The ATR issued for them, which expired on March 8, 2024, can it be extended or not?

2. Under the conditions in which you sanctioned the Transelectrica company with 10,000 lei on 10.07.2024 and you agreed to conclude the connection contract for the two projects, what is the legal basis for concluding these contracts in the present situation?

3. What was the argument regarding the acceleration of the procedure for obtaining the initial ATR for the Vădeni projects and subsequently the argument inserted in the request regarding the extension?".

As you can see from ANRE's answer above, the authority only answered half of question number 2, not providing any answer for the rest of it, nor for questions 1 and 3.

• Technical approvals for connection expired or extended?

Our sources within Transelectrica told us that ANRE had no way to offer another answer as long as the two projects were to be implemented in Brăila county, that is, exactly in the administrative area controlled by the social-democratic European deputy Mihai Tudose, former Prime Minister of Romania, close to the current Prime Minister Mihai Ciolacu.

The quoted sources told us: "The request for the two projects went through like cheese, in the emergency procedure, by the Transelectrica Directorate in December 2022, on the grounds that they would be financed from European funds, directly from the PNRR, and that an analysis their attention within the legal term of 2-3 months would lead to the loss of the respective funds. The only member of the Directorate who did not sign for the granting of an urgent opinion was Florin Tătaru, who checked with the Ministry of European Investments and Projects and the Ministry of Energy whether the projects are caught with European funding and found that none of the projects were on a list with projects financed from European funds. The year 2023 passed without anything notable happening, but in 2024, on March 8, the Technical Approval for Connection expired. So on March 4, the two companies owned by Ion Badea submitted a request to Transelectrica asking for an extension of the deadline, a request that was submitted to ANRE on March 7 and which could not be resolved in 24 hours, because the next day part of the institution's staff was free, given that it was International Women's Day. Under these conditions, the ATR for the two projects has expired and the respective companies should start the procedure all over again".

Florin Tătaru, a member of the Transelectrica Directorate, also expressed himself regarding the expiry of the ATR for the two projects, in a correspondence with another member of the Directorate, Cătălin Nadolu, which is in the possession of the BURSA Newspaper and which mainly refers to contesting the contravention report drawn up by ANRE in July 2024.

Here is what Mr. Florin Tătaru says in point 3 of the respective correspondence: "Regarding the request to ANRE to issue a decision to extend (I think this is what you wanted to write in the penultimate paragraph) the term of validity of the ATRs to a later date, seeing the legal definitions of this legal institution, I don't think we can now ask ANRE to extend an act that lost its validity on 03/08/2024. In my understanding, I said it and I repeat it, ANRE ordered our company to take a compliance measure, i.e. for Transelectrica to resume the process of connecting the applications in question to the grid, precisely because on the date of submission of the complete documentation by them, ATR- hours were within the expiration date. The physical impossibility, as a result of the lack of time, made it impossible to go through the procedures for drawing up and signing the contracts until the expiration date of the validity of the ATRs. The regulator comes now and shows us that in this undesirable situation, the applicant has the right and Transelectrica has the obligation (assuming a complete file) to conclude the connection contract".

Instead, Mr. Cătălin Nadolu supported contesting the sanction applied to Transelectrica by ANRE and submitting a request to the regulatory authority to extend the validity of the ATRs that expired on March 8, 2024.

• Political interests in Vădeni projects

But why did ANRE come up with this clarification in July 2024? Because one of those who took care of obtaining the initial ATRs for the Vădeni projects when he was president of the Transelectrica Directorate is Gabriel Andronache, the current vice president of the regulatory authority!

Our sources from Transelectrica state: "The CTES approval granted in December 2022 for the two projects from Vădeni was given as an emergency because Gabriel Andronache, the then president of Transelectrica, along with three other members of the Directorate, decided so. The only one who objected was Mr. Tătaru, who was called to Mr. Gabriel Andronache's office and blackmailed with his position in the company in order to obtain his signature. Moreover, the president of the Directorate, Gabriel Andronache, taking advantage of the dominant position he held at Transelectrica, exerted pressure on some directors of technical advisory entities, but they refused to sign and to assume any document related to this procedure, considering its classification as an emergency procedure abusive, but even in the absence of these signatures the two studies of technical solutions for the Vădeni projects were approved positively in only 5 calendar days, from Friday until wednesday The approval took place in the CTES meeting of December 21, 2022, the opinions being drawn up on December 22, 2022".

We mention that related to the involvement of Mr. Gabriel Andronache in these projects, or better said the existence of a relationship, even if only political, between the current vice-president of ANRE and Ion Badea, the administrator of the two companies in the Vădeni projects, we wanted to find out an answer from ANRE, but to this question, marked with number 4 in the sent request, the officials of the regulatory authority refused to answer us.

We mention that, together with the request sent on July 30 to ANRE, we also sent one on the same subject to Transelectrica. The representatives of the state company told us on Friday, August 9, that they will respond to our request within 30 days.

According to our sources, there is a notification to the National Anticorruption Directorate, and the prosecutors sent, the other day, to Transelectrica an address requesting certain information related to the Vădeni projects.

Our sources also told us that the social democrats' political interest in concluding the contracts is huge, taking into account that the respective projects would be sold to a company controlled by an Israeli, and the commission related to the sale would amount to at least 3 million euros . However, in these moments when the presidential and parliamentary election campaigns are approaching, any amount is needed to promote the PSD.