Transelectrica’s Energy Investments Consolidated with the Help of EIB Best Practices

Transelectrica and the European Investment Bank (EIB) will boost cooperation to consolidate and accelerate investments in Romania’s power grid. Technical advisory collaboration, whose role is to facilitate and streamline investment processes in the energy sector, was agreed on February 23, in Bucharest, by Gabriel Andronache, President of Transelectrica’s Management Board, Florin Tataru, member of Transelectrica’s Management Board, and Christian Kettel Thomsen, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, responsible for energy and lending operations in Romania.

Transelectrica is the National Power Grid Company of Romania and operates high-voltage power transmission lines, managing a network of 8,931 kilometres, as well as 81 electrical sub-stations across the country. Cooperation with the European Investment Bank will bring together the best practices to boost the pace of future investments in the power grid, improve the development of public tenders and procurement, as well as the management of energy projects.

“The European Investment Bank collaborates with Romanian partners in the energy sector in order to strengthen high-impact energy investments throughout the country. We are delighted to conclude our first advisory agreement with Transelectrica in order to support our transforming investments to accelerate the necessary future projects, with a view of increasing the capacity of the power grid in Romania, so as to cover the increased demand for energy and lead to the improvement of power transmission service quality. Energy investments are essential to fulfil the long-term climate policies and decarbonization targets,” said Christian Kettel-Thomsen, Vice-President of the European Investment Bank responsible for energy and lending operations in Romania.

“The agreement signed with the European Investment Bank will represent an important step in removing bottlenecks and boosting investments provided by Transelectrica in the Ten-Year Network Development Plan. At the moment, in order to align with the European targets, the power transmission infrastructure requires major and impactful investments, which allow increasing the transmission capacity and integrating renewable energy. Therefore, Transelectrica will closely pursue to the new approaches and opportunities that will exist under the Advisory Agreement signed with the European Investment Bank,” said Gabriel Andronache, President of Transelectrica’s Management Board.

The European Investment Bank has provided over EUR 1.2bn for energy investments in Romania since 1991.