Termoenergetica suffered a major breakdown on Friday evening at 22:40. During the night, coordinated technical maneuvers were carried out by ELCEN dispatcher and Termoenergetica to support the heating system. The Mayor of the Capital (PMB), Gabriela Firea, accused ELCEN of sabotage and promised to open a criminal investigation. Yet, ELCEN officials replied:
“As a result of the damage produced on Friday evening at 22:40 on the district heating network belonging to the Termoenergetica, which is subordinated to the City Hall, the additional water flow increased to approximately 1,000 tonnes/ h only at CTE Bucharest South, and the pressure on the pipes of return decreased to one (1) bar, which indicated the appearance of a violent breakout on the district heating no. 2 path.
“From that moment, the ELCEN teams, in coordination with the Termoenergetica teams, intervened promptly and began the necessary technical maneuvers in such a situation of failure,” according to the ELCEN statement.
“Despite the tendentious statements of the Mayor of the Capital, Gabriela Firea and the desperate attempts to find a culprit for the disastrous situation in which the heating system is finding itself, the ELCEN employees, in collaboration with the Termoenergetica employees, did everything they could throughout the night and in the course of today, so that the situation does not get out of control,” the press release said.
“The ELCEN employees reject the accusations of the General Mayor Gabriela Firea and accuse her of being unprofessional, because from a technical point of view it can be proved with the operating diagrams that the mentioned failure is not due to the operating maneuvers,” it is also stated in a separate release of of the ELCEN Unions.
“What is purposely omitted by the Mayor of the Capital is that the district heating system in Bucharest in the care of the City Hall of Bucharest is on the verge of collapse, that the pipes are old and rusty, and the losses of hot water on the network are immense. Because of this, damage is becoming more frequent and the risk of a total collapse is getting closer to reality. Mrs. Mayor fails to state that huge efforts are needed to keep the system afloat in the disastrous situation it has reached,” ELCEN officials said.