The need for investments in the electricity distribution infrastructure, until 2030, is somewhere between 9 and 11 billion euros, taking into account different targets, said on Tuesday Daniela Dărăban, executive director, Federation of Energy Utility Companies Associations (ACUE). .

“The investment needed in the distribution infrastructure until 2030 is somewhere between 9 and 11 billion euro, so it depends on how ambitious we are. Different targets have been taken into account. Now, on the National Integrated Energy and Climate Change Plan (PNESC) republished, we are even more ambitious. What we lack is on the implementation side, connecting these ambitions with the rest of the way. So let’s go to the customer at the customer, we have to make these investments in distribution and supply and transport.

If up to now, somewhere around 500 million euros per year have been invested in distribution, on average, based on the current investment requirement, we should reach somewhere around 1 billion euros, this being the basic scenario, 1.5 billion euros is the necessary scenario to face the ambitions we see through the established national objectives”, said Daniela Dărăban, quoted by Agerpres.

She specified that the investment part in distribution is “very, very dependent on the regulatory framework”.

“It is a fully regulated activity. In the distribution area we have important operators, we have important investment funds, we have the largest investment fund in the world that has assets in the distribution part of Romania. The way in which the regulatory framework reflects the need the growth of investments in the distribution sector in the next 5 years is totally deficient, so we will not reach the recently approved regulatory framework where we have planned, through the rest of the national objectives. This lack of coordination, consistency, of alignment between national regulations and decisions is for investors, at least in the business area they represent, the biggest problem, because we will do exactly as much as the regulatory framework will allow,” added Dărăban.