Romania to ask European Commission to extend coal-fired power plant operating terms

Romania will ask the European Commission (EC) to extend the operating terms of coal-fired power plants by 2-3 years, because it currently has nothing to replace these coal-fired units with, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said in a press conference.

“We have proposed extending the operating terms of coal-fired power plants. We have no other option, in the context in which Romania’s energy must be a secure energy source and we have nothing to replace coal-fired units with at this time, at least. Moreover, the gas-fired units in the restructuring plan at Complexul Energetic Oltenia are delayed, we must say it openly. There were tenders, such as the one in Ișalnița, where there was no bidder. The same thing happened, unfortunately, at Hidrocentrale Craiova, with the money from the PNRR, but this is another topic and now we have to see if we do new market studies. New tenders will certainly be needed. All these things generate delays and then we have three things to do. We have to negotiate with the European Commission an adjustment of the PNRR, because this milestone was considered closed, fulfilled by Romania,” Energy Minister Burduja explained.

“In article 21, paragraph 1, it is written that, if the Recovery and Resilience Plan, including the relevant milestones and targets, can no longer be fulfilled in whole or in part, as a result of objective circumstances, the state may submit a reasoned request to the Commission and the Commission will discuss it. Paragraph 2 states how such requests are approved: the Commission and the Council shall subsequently, by decision, approve it within 60 days of the official submission of the request, with the possibility of extension, if necessary,” he added.

“In any case, given the current deadlines, we cannot afford, from my point of view, to no longer be able to count on Complexul Energetic Oltenia from 2026. We simply have nothing to replace these coal-fired groups with. We will keep you informed of this approach as well. My appeal is to all parties involved. We have an inter-ministerial Coal Committee, which includes MIPE, the Ministry of Finance and several stakeholders – the Valea Jiului Energy Complex. So we all have to pull in the same boat. We had these discussions, so that we could come with a unified point of view before the Commission and obtain these exemptions from the deadlines. I don’t think what we are asking for is too much. There are other European states that have coal-fired power plants until 2049, if I’m not mistaken. It’s true, they have a slightly greater dependence on coal,” mentioned Sebastian Burduja.