On Thursday, May 11, the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Romania (CCIpR) organized Energy Forum – Renewables, an event dedicated to Italian investors, for a perspective on the roadmap of Romania’s energy transition, as well as on the immediate plans arising from the national energy realities.
The proceedings of the conference were opened by Roberto Musneci, President of CCIpR, who announced the conference program for this year, which will include two more events in the autumn focused on the new infrastructure, oil and gas and nuclear (October) and circular economy (November).
“There are more and more Italian investors coming to Romania, especially interested in the renewables sector, but also by all the other sectors. The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Romania tries to offer business opportunities and facilitate business relations with local partners,” said Roberto Musneci.
“The wave of European investments that ensure the energy transition is unprecedented. The renewable energy sector in Romania is an extremely important one, and we have been receiving at least one investment proposal per week for the last 18 months. The EIB financed energy transition projects with 17 billion euros in 2022 (of which 700 million euro in Romania – e.n.). Of these, one third were renewable projects, one third network and storage investments and one third went to energy efficiency. The effort in developing storage capacities is very important, because it allows us to reduce costs and balance the network. We also need to invest more in smart technologies, because a smart grid allows us to reduce costs. My message to investors – let’s not reduce investments in production, but also take a look at the network, transmission and storage capacity,” said Lara Tassan Zanin, Head at EIB Group Office in Romania.
”We now see Romania being one of the most attractive markets in the region. Romania’s goal to implement 10 GW of low-carbon technologies by 2030 can be revised to much more, under the National Energy Plan (PNIESC – e.n.) changes. It has many chances to be surpassed, given the hype in the marlket and the appetite of the investors and the pipeline of the projects that are being developed. But this is a long-run effort, is not so simple. The EU funds, alongside other support schemes such as Contracts for Difference (CfDs) would definitely help investors, the important thing is to be provided in a timely manner. As always, the market faces its fair share of challenges, especially in the latest years, when we had an unexpected volatility of the prices, adding to the increased costs of the suppy chains and delays in procurement of the ecquipment. The lack of liquidity of the PPA market in Romania is another hurdle to be overcome in the coming years, as the market becomes more sophisticated and open to this type of instruments,” said Varinia Radu, partner, Energynomics – media partner of the event.
At the same time, Dan Dragoș Drăgan, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Energy, announced that Romania will replace coal-fired capacities with 10,000 MW of renewable energy, but also through the use of small-sized reactors (SMRs) and new capacities on gas, the fuel transition so necessary to balance the network.
At the same time, Mircea Man, the vice-president of ANRE, announced a series of measures that “modify the existing orders, precisely for the flexibility of the transport and distribution networks in order to connect easier to the grid.”
Among the speakers were Pasquale Silvestro, Partner at Tonucci & Partners, Vincenzo Moderno-founder of Modvin, Massimo Ceccariglia, Deputy Head of the Project Development Department, Mytilineos, Mario Tocco, Country Manager Romania, Alerion Clean Power, Federico Cianciosi, COO Prysmian Romania, Radu Dudău, Co-founder and president of EPG, Lorena Voicu, CFO, Alive Capital and Cătălina Drăgoi, head of operations for Romania and Bulgaria, ERG Power Generation Spa.
