Romania needs badly clean production capacities to replace coal-fired power plants, said Zoltan Nagy-Bege, ANRE vice-president, at the 7th edition of the Energy Strategy Summit, an event organized by Energynomics.

“The key word for this edition of the Energy Strategy Summit is ‘integration’. We are on June 17, the date when the Day-Ahead Market (DAM) in Romania is coupled with three other major countries – Austria, Germany and Poland, an intermediate step taken on the way to all member countries of the MRC – what is this, if not integration?!,” said Bege.

Romania’s interconnection capacity has also improved in the gas area, thanks to Transgaz’s efforts, the ANRE vice-president also said.

He also said that Romania needs new production capacities to increase domestic production, which would lead to lower prices.

And high prices now in the market, “unseen for some time”, are an additional incentive for new investments, both in the electricity and gas markets.

“We will need natural gas, whether or not the decision to invest in the Black Sea will be taken,” he said. Romania needs an expansion of the natural gas network, an increase in the degree of access of the population and companies to the gas network.

“We need new electricity capacities and, as shown by PNIESC, by 2030 we will build about 7 GW of new renewable capacities – we can say that we have a chance to build more,” said Bege.

“The need for new production capacity is undeniable, and national legislation is getting closer to European legislation – we follow exactly the same values as Europe, for sustainable low-carbon production and the fight against climate change,” he added.