Billions of Euros to Ensure Romania’s Energy Security
Romania seeks solutions to help ensure energy security investments of billions of euros being expected in this respect.
Prime-Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca met with the representatives of Romelectro, Hidroconstruct, Hidroelectrica, CE Oltenia and CE Hunedoara, to identify the solutions for developing the national electricity production capacity.
Therefore, from May, CE Oltenia will increase its production capacity by 300 MW and by the end of the year the commissioning of Iernut power plant will provide other 210 MW. Investments to obtain energy in hydro system will ensure other 200 MW, as of next year.
At the same time, the Romanian Government will boost the plans for investments from the Modernization Fund, to develop energy production capacities, including from renewable sources.
Since the beginning of this year, CE Oltenia has submitted projects worth EUR 1.4 billion, of which EUR 895 million from the Modernization Fund.
Other EUR 400 million will be allocated to projects submitted by Transelectrica, to which the amount of EUR 1.1 billion for the development of the electricity distribution network will be added.
In March, project calls will be launched in the energy sector worth EUR 960 million, which will generate an additional electricity production capacity of 260 MW.
Other EUR 2.8 billion will be made available from the Modernization Fund this autumn to develop energy production capacities.
Investments in the nuclear field continue
Further to efforts to ensure Romania’s energy independence, Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca had a meeting with the representatives of Last Energy, a US company supported by investors also involved in the development of Space X projects.
Last Energy develops innovative solutions for small modular nuclear reactors (20 MWh installed power). To this end, in collaboration with the Autonomous Administration for Nuclear Energy Technologies (RATEN), a demonstrative project will be developed on Mioveni (Arges County) platform, project complementary to the investments already announced in Romania in the nuclear field.
From the perspective of joint effort within the Romania-US Strategic Partnership, Prime-Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciuca showed that in Romania there are specialists able to help the implementation of such an innovative project, which can contribute to achieving the strategic objective of reaching energy independence.
The discussions with the representatives of Last Energy were attended by Virgil Popescu, Romania’s Energy Minister and Razvan Nicolescu, member of the Board of the European Institute of Technology & Innovation.
