The participants in the process of connecting to the grid encounter a series of barriers, legislative, bureaucratic, associated with financing, but also some generated by the insufficient development of the electric transmission and distribution networks, is the conclusion of a study carried out by the Competition Council and the National Regulatory Authority in the field Energy (ANRE).
The competition authority emphasizes, through a press release, that the activity of connecting to public interest electricity networks is a mandatory service, which is carried out under regulated conditions and which must be performed by the transmission and system operator (OTS), as well as distribution operators (DOs). Connecting to the electricity network involves going through several stages, which are embodied in distinct activities provided by different operators, the stages and procedures necessary for connecting users to the network being established by ANRE regulations.
“We are particularly interested in the process of connecting the new production capacities from renewable sources to the transmission/distribution network, considering that several financing schemes have been launched, through the National Recovery and Resilience Program, but also through other national and community investment programs. In this context, the priority is the optimization of the national authorization/approval procedures, with the aim of reducing project implementation times. At the same time, it is very important to differentiate between strictly necessary regulations, with essential in ensuring the quality of services, and those that are not strictly necessary, even potentially harmful to the development of the market”, said Bogdan Chirițoiu, the president of the Competition Council.
The study shows that the most frequent problems faced by companies when entering the electricity production market from renewable sources refer to the administrative authorization process (bureaucracy, non-transparent processes, the long duration of issuing the technical approval for connection (ATR), legislative framework interpretable and insufficient). At the same time, other problems related to insufficient investments in the development of electricity networks, the lack of experience in working with renewable projects of the personnel involved in various stages of the authorization process, the development of speculative investments were identified.
In this context, the competition authority and the energy regulatory authority formulated a series of proposals and recommendations to eliminate or mitigate the barriers identified in the study.
“The implementation of a “one-stop-shop” module dedicated to obtaining the license in the field of electricity production from renewable sources, as a distinct part within the Single Electronic Contact Point for the industrial license, could have multiple benefits from the point of view of reducing time of granting licenses and, implicitly, of connecting to the network, from the point of view of transparency, standardization and uniformity of the process”, the press release states.
Thus, economic operators who invest in renewable energy production capacities will be able to apply to obtain the licenses, authorizations, agreements and approvals necessary to carry out the activity in a single procedure, through the single electronic point of contact for the industrial license. In this way, the possibility of having a unique forum in Romania regarding renewable energy projects is created, bringing together specialists in the field of the development of these projects, which would allow a faster assessment of the cumulative impact of all projects, according to Agerpres.
Considering the difficulties generated by the insufficient development of electrical networks, which leads to network congestion in the most important areas for the connection of photovoltaic/wind farms, the Competition Council and ANRE recommend to the Ministry of Energy and the central authorities with powers to regulate certain stages in the development of the electricity network transport so that, when developing and implementing strategies in this field, it takes into account the objectives assumed by Romania in the field of renewable energy and the need to identify new possibilities for ensuring/facilitating sources of financing for network development works.
From the point of view of the legislation, it was found that the main barriers are the lack of legislative levers to prevent the development of investments with a potential speculative character and the lack of a correlated legislative package, which would prevent the long duration of the connection process. Currently, there are situations where some economic operators/investors request and obtain ATR, but do not intend to complete the projects and put them into operation, with a view to entering the market, but rather sell the projects to other investors at the “ready” stage to build”. This behavior leads to the blocking of available capacity for connection to investment in renewable projects for the duration of the validity of the ATRs obtained, causing major difficulties for investors requesting grid connection for the purpose of effective market entry.