Romania’s €418 M for grid upgrade
The Ministry of Energy of Romania approved €418.2 million in grants to the country’s regional power distribution system operators for grid expansion and modernization projects.
Image for illustration purposes.
Romania, Bucharest: The development of electricity networks is crucial for the energy transition and decarbonization, but it is among the segments lagging the most in the process. The lack of grid capacity and digitalized, smart features hinders the deployment of renewables and storage solutions and limits the amount of electricity supply from intermittent and scattered sources that the system can handle. Romania has allocated a part of its European funding for the expansion and modernization of the network. The Ministry of Energy signed 21 contracts supporting investments worth almost €646 million.
There are six regional distribution system operators in the country: Delgaz Grid, Distribuţie Energie Oltenia, Distribuție Energie Electrică Romania (DEER), Rețele Electrice Muntenia, Rețele Electrice Dobrogea and Rețele Electrice Banat. The DSOs got €418.4 million in total in grants from the European Union’s Modernisation Fund, with proposed investments including safety, monitoring and measuring systems, transformers, voltage stabilization and energy efficiency. Investments at the distribution level are important for small power plants, facilities for self-supply and the development of local energy cooperatives and communities.
PPC’s subsidiaries got €87.1 million through six contracts for projects worth €112.2 million. The ministry awarded €121.6 million to E.ON’s Delgaz Grid for four investments worth €187 million. Electrica, in which the government controls 49%, got €170.7 million in cofinancing for seven projects worth €265.7 million. Distribuţie Energie Oltenia, owned by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA), signed 4 deals and plans to spend €59.8 million on expansion and modernization, of which the state will cover €38.8 million.
Source: Balkan Green Energy News
#Modernisation Fund#network development#power distribution grid#Romania