The pandemic is not the worst thing that can happen to us, given that we are still facing problems caused by climate change and, especially in Romania, the lack of investment in energy production, said Corneliu Bodea, president of the Romanian Energy Center (CRE) and CEO of Adrem Invest, during the FOREN 2020 online conference.

“Energy is the third sector hard hit by the pandemic. We see that consumption has now begun to recover, but predictability is declining. I think we need more than a year, maybe a few years, to recover from this extremely difficult situation – I mean all energy sectors,” Bodea said.

According to him, the main objective of the sector is to “keep the light on”, and during this period the energy sector acted correctly and there were no major disruptions.

“We will continue to focus on keeping the sector running. But we must not make the mistake of believing that the pandemic is the worst thing that can happen to us. We are still facing climate change and we must not lose focus,” said the CRE official, according to Agerpres.

In his view, it is a good thing that the EU has decided to capitalize on the Green Deal, including as a tool for overcoming the pandemic crisis.

“In Romania, unfortunately, our situation is not as good as it could be. We are coming after years of lack of investment, especially in the field of electricity, which brings great risks. Reports show that Romania is exposed to a great danger of not being able to sustain consumption,” he stressed.

The president of CRE reminded that Romania was an energy importer in 2019 and 2020, but not because of the capacity to generate, but because of obsolete power plants, which produce more expensive energy than the ones in the region.

“This has generated other challenges and made many companies face the lack of projects, of activity, which is a big problem that we have to manage in the coming years,” Bodea added.