Although Bucharest City Hall has announced that it wants to restore 31 km of the heating network, Claudiu Crețu, Special Administrator of Elcen, is reluctant that any km on the network will be refurbished this year. He claims that the infrastructure state is critical, as out of the 4,000 km of network, the 1,000 km principal grid being the hardest hit.
“The works were attributed to Energetica, a company that will be closed. I do not think there will be any km done. We have technological losses of 28%, and in the winter we lost 2,000 tones per hour, much more – almost double the 2014-2015 period. The networks are old, since the 1960s, we need new networks urgently,” Claudiu Cretu told energynomics.ro.
The City Hall intends to invest this year in the refurbishment of 31.2 km of network, while more than 75% of the network of nearly 4,000 km of pipeline is over 40 years old and risks causing damage at any time, according to Frames.
The data from the draft budget of the City Hall indicates the amount of EUR 63 million (RON 303.5 million) in the heat expenditures (RADET), of which EUR 20.4 million for continued investments in previous years and 43.4 million for others investment.
“It is relevant that the project does not allocate any lei for new investments in 2019, all of which have been moved in the 2020-2025 horizon. In addition, the budget does not provide any money from external sources (loans, EU funds, etc.), although the municipality boasts, at least on paper, about projects worth hundreds of millions of euros,” according to the analysis of the consultancy firm.
Among the few investments undertaken by Municipality this year is the development of RADET operational dispatch, where 2.5 million lei (commitment credits) are allocated from a necessary of 52.2 million lei (objective assumed since 2000), for the modernization of thermal power stations, where 5.2 million lei are in, out of a total need of 68.5 million lei, the modernization of the thermal network in Crângaşi area (1.25 million lei out of the necessary 52 million lei), modernization of the CET Victoria, the thermal network in the Aviatorilor area and the efficiency of the thermal energy supply of the consumers connected to two power stations in the Bucureștii Noi area.
