Andrei Berechet, Adrem Invest: “We must keep the competent workforce in the energy industry”

“In 2014, within Adrem we had a fully structured portfolio for energy efficiency. But back then we were too early on the dance floor. There was no intrinsic motivation of the industry to invest in energy efficiency, nor in photovoltaic installations. Things have changed and I think that from 2022, the dance floor is filling up more and more and I think that on an individual level there can be many ingredients for the success of a project. But for the industry and projects in general to succeed we need to look at how we scale. That means flexibility. And this is the watchword in terms of how the transmission and distribution networks should develop further,” Andrei Berechet, Chief Commercial Officer, Adrem Invest said during Energy Efficiency for Sustainable Business Conference organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

“Photovoltaics and wind are sources of production that are not predictable and controllable. More important than the raw capacity to take the power injected into the grid is the flexibility to take it dynamically. One solution is storage. The solution is still expensive, still untested on a large scale, and with potential long-term question marks, because we may be replacing one form of carbon emissions with a new form of waste that is difficult to manage in the very long term.

I’m not saying that storage won’t be a solution, but the current technology in batteries I don’t think allows it to take us where we would hope. It is important to understand that in the field of energy transmission and distribution, all tariff and investment promotion policy must be continued and even amplified.

Even if we are talking about technology, we must keep the competent workforce in the energy industry, to be able to execute these installations. Before I’m worried about whether the grid manages to absorb thousands of megawatts, I’d be more concerned about who exactly is running those thousands of megawatts. Competent people are needed in an energetic construction.

I think there are some technologies that are essential and need to be more valued. The area of virtual power plants is essential because decentralization is not practical. If they don’t invest in the aggregation of virtual power plants, all the investors will get is suboptimal production.

There is a need to speed up smart metering implementations. Otherwise, we will waste money and investment opportunities.”

Full recording of the conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQNzpukqtgQ&t=6951s