The restructuring process of state-owned companies remains a difficult one and it is important that the Romanian state does not lose so much money, said on Thursday, in a specialized debate, the president of the Competition Council, Bogdan Chiriţoiu, who referred to the restructuring plans of the energy companies Oltenia and Hunedoara.
“The difficult process of restructuring state-owned companies remains. I am confident that we are nearing an end in the sense of having a clear plan for the transition from coal to new energy sources, but which cannot fail to involve, for a period of time, gas. We cannot jump directly from coal to renewable sources. For the operation of the system, it is necessary, for a period of years, to use gas or gas mixed with hydrogen. It is important for the Romanian state not to lose so much money. We are talking about Hunedoara (Energy Complex). I know that we once paid off one billion euros in debt, after which it made another hundred million euros in debt. Those are not things that a poor state like Romania to be able to afford it,” said Chiriţoiu, during the 7th edition of the Energy Strategy Summit, an event organized by Energynomics.
The head of the Competition Council considers that, even in the case of the Oltenia Energy Complex, the financial effort of the state of hundreds of millions of euros per year does not represent “a thing that would be reasonable for the budgetary possibilities of Romania.”
“Unfortunately, at Oltenia (Energy Complex), and not for its fault, things stayed the same when the context changed. The new context means that the price of CO2 certificates has risen a lot and we expect it to continue to rise, in which situation Oltenia had to receive support, last year, of 200 million euro, this year another 200 million euro, and next year it wants a few hundred million. This effort of hundreds of millions of euro per year is not a reasonable effort for Romania’s budget. We are quite close to reaching a formula in which Oltenia, in particular, and to a certain extent and some capacities in Hunedoara, to build new capacities with renewables and gas and we will use coal only as much as it is needed to ensure the operation of the system until we have additional capacities installed,” Bogdan Chiriţoiu pointed out, according to Agerpres.
2021 Energy Strategy Summit was organized by Energynomics, with the support of Automatica, BCR, CE Oltenia, Chimcomplex, E.ON România, Electrica Furnizare, Electroalfa, EnergoBit, Enevo Group, FPPG, Greencells, Horvath & Partners, ING Bank, Hidroelectrica, MET România Energy, Nuclearelectrica, OMV Petrom, Photomate, Rolls Royce, Romgaz, Schneider Electric, Signify, Transgaz.
