The electrification of homes without electricity is heading for another Romanian failure, warns the Intelligent Energy Association, which has brought electricity to 25 hamlets that never had electricity through its “Energy for Life” project. The president of the association, Dumitru Chisăliță, complains about the flawed way in which the firms selected in the programme were selected and the over-estimated costs, with a negative impact on the final beneficiaries. AEI estimates that only between 5,000 and 10,000 of the 60,000 potential beneficiaries will actually benefit from solar panels under the programme administered by the MIPE, even though the funds available are more than sufficient.
Selection of firms without implementation capacity
The selection criteria for the winning firms were not linked to the actual experience in the field and the financial capacity required to implement the projects, AEI complains. Many of the selected firms have very small turnovers, some in the order of a few hundred lei, and a small number of employees (1-3 people). This raises questions about their ability to set up in a short time the installations for which the vouchers have been allocated. Estimates suggest that these firms will not be able to complete the works on time, which would result in the loss of a large part of the allocated funds.
Loss of funds and impact on beneficiaries
The programme foresees the installation of solar panels for 60,000 vulnerable households, but due to poor implementation, it is estimated that only 5,000-10,000 households will actually benefit from this support. This means a failure rate of more than 85%, and EU funds that should have supported vulnerable consumers risk being lost or reallocated to final beneficiaries outside this segment. In addition, the lack of an effective monitoring mechanism and the absence of clear criteria for the selection of firms raises suspicions of possible misappropriation of funds.
Overstated costs and risks for vulnerable consumers
Another aspect criticised by Dumitru Chisăliță is that the value of the vouchers is too high in relation to the real costs of the equipment and installation. For example, for a 3 kW system with a 5 kW battery, the value of the voucher is 50,000 lei, while the real cost would be around 16,000 lei. This means an over-valuation of more than 200%, money that does not reach the final beneficiaries, but remains with the selected firms, some of which appear to be acting strictly as intermediaries. In addition, the subcontracting of work and the use of sub-standard equipment risks jeopardising the safety and efficiency of the systems installed.
Lack of transparency and poor programme management
IEA also points to the lack of open dialogue between the EPI and relevant industry stakeholders. Some of Romania’s experienced installers have withdrawn from the programme because of poor administration. One example is the removal of one of the essential conditions of the applicant economic operator, that of having “at least one photovoltaic panel installer – code COR 741103 or solar energy engineer – code COR 215151”.
In addition, changing the rules during implementation – for example, the prospect of a ban on subcontracting, without this being clearly spelled out in the original Guidelines – created uncertainty and favoured the resale of selected firms to larger industry players who took control of the vouchers.
AEI President Dumitru Chisăliță warns that, in its current form, the REPowerEU programme will fail to achieve its objectives and will generate massive losses of funds. Instead of supporting vulnerable consumers, the programme seems to have become an opportunity for intermediaries to make substantial gains. In order for this programme to be saved, there needs to be an urgent review of the criteria for selecting firms, a transparency of the process and a real correlation between the costs of the vouchers and the market prices of equipment and installation services.
On Thursday 20 February, MIPE announced the extension of the deadline for submitting applications until 3 March 2025. Their verification by the Single Points of Single Window for Energy Efficiency (GUEE) will end on 31 March 2025, and the deadline for economic operators to submit their applications for funding on the PNRR platform is 3 April 2025. According to MIPE, the extension of the deadline aims to increase the accessibility of the programme for as many beneficiaries as possible.
The Ministry of European Investments and Projects (MIPE) is running the REPowerEU programme, funded by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), to support vulnerable households through the rehabilitation of their homes and the installation of solar panels. The programme offers vouchers of up to €20,200 for housing rehabilitation and the installation of solar panels or €10,000 for the installation of solar panels and green energy storage batteries.