Support for the electrification of needy households

More than 1000 needy households will benefit from the necessary support for heating during this winter according to the "Heated houses for needy families" project launched yesterday with the conclusion of the Partnership to Combat Energy Poverty between the Ministry of Energy and the Intelligent Energy Association (AEI).

Sebastian Burduja, the Minister of Energy, stated: "There are Romanians who are still struggling with poverty and energy poverty. That is why I am very happy that today (ed. - yesterday) I can announce that, together with Mr. Dumitru Chisăliţă (ed. - president of AEI) and the Intelligent Energy Association, the Ministry of Energy signs a partnership to combat poverty energetic. This partnership aims at two main directions that will materialize in two projects of major importance for Romania. First of all, the "Heat Homes" project is aimed at this winter and the holiday season. We thought of challenging the Romanians to think about the needy during the holidays and, if they generally sent donations of clothes, toys or other things of this kind, to be able to send wood for heating, for this winter. Together with the Smart Energy Association, but also with other institutional partners that we will announce during this project, (...) we aim to cover at least 1,000 households with everything that means heating for this winter. He will definitely address all Romanians who will be able to donate, will be able to contribute, will be able to get involved. We will also call on companies in the energy sector to do the right thing and support this campaign."

For his part, Dumitru Chiseliţă, the president of AEI, mentioned that the partnership signed yesterday with the Ministry of Energy solves the problems caused by extreme energy poverty.

Mr. Chiselita said: "The small electrification program was not closed by the communists, nor by the governments after 1990, although there were seven projects to continue the small electrification. Unfortunately, each of the seven projects did not bring the expected result - no more unelectrified households. That is why we tried to identify why these projects were not properly closed and the main reason is the lack of concrete details regarding the households that do not benefit from electricity. (...) There are communities that do not have electricity, although they are on the outskirts of large cities in Transylvania and Moldova, for which there were no possibilities to solve the problem, due to the lack of feasibility regarding the expansion of the networks. In this case, I think that creating off-grid systems can solve the problem".

According to the Minister of Energy, over two-thirds of households in Romania do not have access to any other heating source than firewood. He emphasized that approximately one million lei will represent support for over 1,000 households, with everything that means providing firewood for an entire winter, "money we want to have from donations".

Sebastian Burduja mentioned: "Beneficiaries are chosen according to income, according to the degree of marginalization of the community, the distance from the main access roads, the distance from the sources of supply, etc. So, there will be a transparent list of criteria and associations with which we consult to identify these households", said Burduja.

The Minister of Energy mentioned that the second medium and long-term project refers to those households that do not have electricity, being tens of thousands of households in this situation.

Sebastian Burduja said: "There are houses where Romanian children are still studying in Romania in 2023 by candlelight. However, this situation cannot continue. Together with the Intelligent Energy Association, we will make a national electronic register of all households that do not have access to electricity. We will make a map at the level of Romania with all these households and we will launch the challenge to civil society, to all Romanians, to the private environment, to adopt a house and turn on the light for these Romanians who do not have access to the most basic resource, the resource energy, electricity".

He specified that more than 52,000 households in the country did not have electricity, according to the latest study carried out by the Ministry of Energy based on data collected from the county councils, from the town halls, in 2018.

According to Minister Burduja, the distributors will receive financing from the Modernization Fund, for the expansion of networks "in areas where there are commercial reasons", that is, where it is optimal for households to be connected to the electricity network.

According to the Minister of Energy, in about six months the national electronic register of households without electricity will be created.