Romania Has Completed RePowerEU Provisions

The Ministry of Investment and European Projects announced that Romania has finalized the provisions included in Component 16 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), RePowerEU chapter, with a total budget of EUR 3.04 billion of which EUR 1.39 billion is non-reimbursable financial support, EUR 43 million is related to the Brexit adjustment reserve and EUR 1.6 billion is the reimbursable financial contribution.

The new RePowerEU chapter of the NRRP aims to increase Romania’s resilience and energy independence by increasing the share of renewable electricity production, decarbonising the residential sector and industry, developing and digitising transport capacities and training human resources for the renewable energy sector.

“We have completed the preparation of an important step in Romania’s journey towards energy independence, regarding the inclusion in the Recovery and Resilience Plan of the RePowerEU chapter, which finances investments in green energy, as well as in the expansion and modernisation of electricity distribution networks, including digitalisation and smart metering, which will lead both to a reduction of our own technological consumption and to benefits for end-consumers. The proposals made, which have already been sent to the European Commission, are the result of two types of consultations: technical consultations at inter-ministerial and inter-institutional level, and public consultations in accordance with existing national legislation and the Commission’s recommendations on transparency in decision-making. At this moment, the document is going through the process of analysis and finalisation with the representatives of the European Commission,” said Minister of Investment and European Projects Adrian Caciu.

Some EUR 1.8 billion invested directly in renewable energy generation proposed in the new REPowerEU chapter aims to achieve the following specific objectives:

• Improve the legal framework for the use of non-productive agricultural land for electricity generation by the end of 2024 and improve the legal framework for the operation of prosumers and energy communities;
• Increase the renewable electricity production capacity by about 2000 MW mainly from photovoltaic sources and the degree of specialisation in this field of human resources, by 2026;
• Increase energy efficiency in residential, public and industrial buildings and energy-intensive equipment by 2026 to achieve annual energy savings of at least 10%;
• Testing in Romania’s regions a new concept of energy autonomy based on renewable sources, including local sustainable/ecological biomass, by 2026;
• Strengthen the capacity of the national energy transmission and regional/local electricity distributors to provide services to users by 2026.

In this respect, Component 16 of the NRRP includes 2 reforms and 8 investments:

• Creating the legal framework for the use of non-productive/degraded land owned by the State/ATUs for green energy production, including the creation of a single national register of non-productive land – allocation: EUR 13,500,000 (reform);
• Improving the legislative framework for prosumers and energy communities – allocation: EUR 1,500,000 (reform);
• Vocational training of human resources in the fields of production, storage, transmission and distribution of green energy – allocation: EUR 13,000,000;
• Increasing energy efficiency and green energy production – allocation: EUR 1.33 billion;
• Use of residential buildings to accelerate the implementation of renewable energy – Granting of vouchers to stimulate the installation of photovoltaic panels and related energy storage systems for residential buildings owned by individuals – allocation: EUR 440,903,220;
• Energy Autonomous Villages – allocation: EUR 200,000,000;
• Transfer I1 – C6 – Renewable electricity generation capacities – allocation: EUR 460,000,000;
• Digitisation, efficiency and modernisation of the national electricity transmission network – allocation: EUR 71,488,000;
• National Programme ‘Energy efficient house’ – allocation: EUR 370,000,000;
• Funding scheme for strengthening electricity distribution networks – allocation: EUR 140,000,000.

According to a press release issued by the Ministry of Investments and European Projects, the RePowerEU chapter is under negotiation with the European Commission and the reforms and investments included in the final form will be implemented mostly through calls for proposals.

The Applicant’s Guidelines will be developed in consultation with stakeholders, in particular the beneficiaries targeted by investments, and the IT platform developed for the implementation of the NRRP will be used for the calls for proposals.