The Executive adopted, in Thursday’s meeting, an Emergency Ordinance aimed at supporting storage, in batteries and pumped storage plants, and eliminating double taxation, declared, at the briefing at the end of the Government meeting, the Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja.

“The 2nd Emergency Ordinance adopted today in the Government, very important, aims precisely to support storage. I have said from the beginning of my mandate: storage is the zero priority of the National Energy System. Why? We have an increasing share of green energy production, that is, intermittent energy. We have energy from solar parks, when the sun shines, from wind parks, when the wind blows. When we have neither sun nor wind, especially at the peak of consumption in the evening, we have problems, we import energy at quite high prices. Therefore, we need storage in batteries and we need storage in pumped storage hydroelectric power plants. Romania, unfortunately, in all these years, has not managed to do such a project. All European states that have our geography, our relief, have pumped storage hydroelectric power plants, we are now starting the engines in this direction as well,” said the minister, according to Agerpres.

He stressed that this new Ordinance supports storage, improving the definition of storage and eliminating double taxation.

“Very important. Imagine that with a battery you were taxed both when you were drawing energy from the grid and when you were injecting it. It was double taxation. This has been eliminated and I am convinced that it will support many projects, many investments in battery storage,” Burduja said.

The framework for pumped storage hydropower plants has also been facilitated, which allows a strip of a reservoir to be managed by the Ministry of Energy, which can put it out for concession.

“A lot of ignorant people have expressed themselves on social networks in the following manner: the Ministry of Energy comes and proposes a normative act by which the reservoirs will be given to foreigners. I have rarely heard such nonsense. Basically, what are we doing through this Ordinance? We are creating the framework through which a zero point percent strip of a reservoir that is suitable for a pumped storage hydroelectric power plant, in fact the strip from where the water is pumped from the lower lake to the upper lake, passes, if necessary, based on a study, into the administration of the Ministry of Energy, which can strictly grant that strip of lake a concession,” explained the Minister of Energy.