Ondrej Safar, CEZ Romania: “We see our role mainly as enabler of this smart future”

“Future of the energy system is about generation without emissions, it’s about generation close to the consumption place and it’s about smart solutions. These smart solutions, distributed generation will need the electricity to function either generated by itself or distributed through our network. Although our role as energy companies will significantly change in the future, we will still be having the crucial role in that smart future,” Ondrej Safar, Country Manager, CEZ Group Romania said during Smart Transformation Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“We see our role mainly as enabler of this smart future and to be next to our customers in that journey. For us it means a lot of investments in the network, allowing us to work with all the data which are coming with the smart solutions, installing smart equipment in the network.

One of our priorities is to be close to the local authorities when they are planning their projects. It’s very important to align our investments plans with the plans of the authorities. We are looking in our planning 2-3 years ahead and this is something we are discussing with County Councils, with the cities.

Another priority is distributed generation. Our role is to help the prosumers to be really connected. I was very proud but also very surprised to find out that half of the prosumers in Romania this year were connected in our distribution region, which is around 2500 prosumers. There should be additional 500 prosumers connected by year-end.

One project I would like to mention is a system we are developing since last year and it’s pretty much finalized. Geographical Information System collects all the information about our network. This is going to help us be much faster in making all kinds of approvals. This is something which will also help local authorities and citizens to see where our network is.”