Delgaz Grid, a member company of the E.ON Romania Group, will invest 612 million lei (126 million euros) this year, a priority for the modernization and expansion of the natural gas and electricity distribution networks, the company announced. The budget allocated to investments is 11% higher than the previous year, being also the largest in the last 16 years, since E.ON entered the Romanian energy market. In 2020, the company invested 550 million lei (114 million euros), especially for the modernization of the distribution system.
This year the company aims to invest 612 million lei (126 million euros), 11% more than the previous year. In the natural gas sector, investments of 285 million lei (58 million euros) are foreseen, increasing by 8% compared to 2020, the main objective being the modernization of natural gas pipelines and connections (through replacement and cathodic protection). At the same time, in order to improve the quality of the service, measuring regulation stations (SRM) will be modernized. Another priority for this year is to expand the natural gas distribution system and connect new consumers. In the electricity segment, investments amounting to 327 million lei (67 million euros) are scheduled, increasing by 15% compared to 2020, of which 26.5 million lei (5.4 million euros) represent EU funds, mainly for further implementation of SCADA and automation of urban and rural distribution system, SMART metering, modernization of overhead networks, stations and substations, expansion of the distribution network to connect new consumers, as well as to meet the requirements of the performance standard.
”For SMART Metering – this year we set out to install over 22,000 smart meters and so about 22% of Delgaz Grid customers will benefit from SMART metering. For the period 2021-2028, we intend to install another 387,000 meters, which means that 45% of customers will have smart meters installed by the end of 2028.”
Currently, five projects with European funds, amounting to 191.5 million lei and benefiting from co-financing of 118.7 million lei, are in different stages of implementation. Two of them aim at modernizing and integrating in SCADA eight transformation stations in Iași and Vaslui counties, another aims at installing 10,000 smart meters for consumers in Iași, and the most recently approved project aims to implement an intelligent control system of the electricity distribution network (ADMS) in a homogeneous area with predominantly household consumers from Suceava. Also, Delgaz Grid is implementing a project that pursues cyber security objectives in a total amount of 1 million lei, of which 0.7 million lei is non-reimbursable co-financing. At the same time, the company submitted four projects worth about 181 million lei, which are in different stages of the evaluation process at the level of the responsible authorities.
