The EnergoBit Group is already part of the new wave of renewables in Romania, confirmed the general manager Florin Pop, atEnergynomicsTalks, in a dialogue about the development potential of the production value chain in the Romanian energy industry. At present, EnergoBit is involved in a total of 10,000 MW in projects in different stages. Of these, “approximately 2,500 MW have already passed the stage of obtaining the technical connection authorization”, stated Florin Pop.
“Many of the projects we are working on include energy storage,” said the EnergoBit official. “As a general rule, we recommend the use of storage facilities representing about 10% of the installed capacity in production, so at a 10 MW park, we recommend the use of a storage solution of approximately one megawatt.”
There are clear signs that the companies from EnergoBit group will play a significant role in the next years of developing the production capacities of energy from renewable sources, after the one they played in the first wave. “During the years 2009-2014, approximately 3,000 MW in wind capacity and approximately 1,4000 MW megawatts in the photovoltaic sector were installed in Romania. EnergoBit was involved in the realization of renewable energy projects that totaled more than 2,000 MW, mainly in the wind field, but also in photovoltaic projects “, recalled Florin Pop.
The EnergoBit Group has four major business lines, including production in two factories. “We currently produce medium and low voltage electrical equipment, including prefabricated concrete tire substations, ultra-low loss distribution transformers, medium voltage cells, primary and secondary distribution and, of course, a wide range of electrical distribution, automation and SCADA switchboards”, stated Florin Pop. Romania has good prospects for developing the industrial production chain for the energy industry, according to the EnergoBit official, “because there is intelligence, and we can find qualified personnel”. Romania is still suffering from the effects of decisions taken in the 1990s and early 2000s, when major players in the energy sector developed production capacity in countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, as these countries have benefited more quickly from PHARE mechanisms and from the accession to the European Union. “Today, these production capacities cover their domestic markets, and some components even reach Romania”, Florin Pop underlined.
We can think of producing wind turbines and photovoltaic panels in Romania, as well as all the other elements needed. “For a photovoltaic project, the cost of the panels represents maybe 50% of the value of the investment. If we include the value of the land and the development costs, the panels can be even less than 50%. But there are many more components, there are cables, for example, that we produce in Romania. We can think about the development of power electronics, but we must not ignore the intelligence that is needed in the preliminary stages, the preparation of projects – design, studies, etc. Then, Romania has very well developed resources in the software area, which in a photovoltaic project, for example, is responsible for automated control and remote operation”, said Florin Pop.
The second department in the EnergoBit group is responsible for electrical engineering and excels in “solutions for measuring, metering and analyzing the quality of electricity, in protection solutions and in SCADA solutions”. The third major department brings together general contracting activities in the field of electricity. “What we are trying to do is more than just presenting ourselves to the partner with a team of project managers, but to cover as much as possible of the complex life of a large project”, the general manager of EnergoBit also said.