State Secretary Dragan: “We will soon launch a call for projects on thermal energy production with increased efficiency”

“PNRR has some very ambitious targets regarding the energy sectors. 29 milestones are at the Ministry of Energy and these will have to be achieved according to the assumed plan.

For investments through PNRR, the Ministry of Energy has a budget of 1.6 billion euros. The main areas and targets we want to achieve are in the field of decarbonization and in the field of more consistent production of energy from renewable sources.

Through the National Integrated Plan in the field of Energy and Climate Change (PNIESC), Romania has assumed a target of 30.7 percent on the production of energy from renewable sources in 2030. In the context of Fit for 55, we estimate that this target will be of 34 percent. With this change, the capacity to generate energy from renewable sources will increase consistently in this decade,” Dan Dragan, State Secretary, Ministry of Energy said during Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan Conference 2022 organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

„A first step was the restructuring plan of CE Oltenia. During this decade, production capacities from fossil sources will be replaced with new production capacities and an additional capacity of 725 MW installed in photovoltaic sources.

The second step taken by the Ministry of Energy is to launch the call for projects worth 460 million euros through PNRR, through which we aim to install additional capacities of at least 950 MW installed.

All these funds that Romania has at its disposal represent an opportunity for the realization of new production capacities, the strengthening of the energy transmission and distribution networks.

We have 475 million euros for individual projects at Transelectrica, without which we cannot accommodate new generation capacities in the system. At the same time, a new development plan for the distribution networks of 1.1 billion euros has been approved by the Investment Committee, and the development will start in the next period.

Our efforts are commensurate with the funds coming through PNRR, we are working on the development of these support schemes for market participants through which to achieve the objectives set for 2030.

During this quarter we will launch a call for projects for thermal energy production in conditions of increased efficiency. At the same time, related to this call for projects, we are also thinking about the transport part, the thermal network and there we are in the process of finalizing a support scheme that will be financed by the Modernization Fund. So we are thinking about high-efficiency concentration capabilities and the thermal network, through investments in the same period of time.

It is essential that the large generation capacities also have storage capacities, which will help to balance and improve the performance of the respective electricity generator, but also to increase the safety and resilience of the national energy system. We are convinced that these storage capacities, even at the level of large generating capacities, are welcome and they will help us to reduce these costs of imbalances in the national energy system, with an impact on the costs that the household or industrial consumer ultimately pays.”

Full recording of the conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5f1JNCEe-I&t=5504s