“Do you know the extremist lie that Romania pays the most expensive electricity and gas in Europe? And that, God forbid, how good it would have been if we had also turned to cheap Russian gas?! Well, the new Eurostat data has arrived and confirms a truth that has been valid since I took over the energy ministry: Romanians pay the fourth CHEAPEST gas and the fifth CHEAPEST electricity among all the member states of the European Union!”, the Energy Minister wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
He claims that the decision to cap energy prices has allowed costs to be kept under control for millions of Romanians.
“It was a good decision. Without this intervention, the impact on households would have been much harder to bear. Our goal now is to protect Romanians and Romanian companies through the lowest possible prices on bills.
“At the same time, we are doing what is necessary so that, in the near future, energy prices depend exclusively on us. This is true energy sovereignty: increasing and diversifying production capacities here, at home, in Romania. By ourselves, not dependent on others,” Burduja also said.
The Minister of Energy claims that in recent decades (2009-2022), Romania has closed production capacities of over 7,000 MW, the equivalent of ten nuclear reactors at Cernavoda.
“We must all understand the extent of the losses for the national energy system and the efforts that we have been making for more than a year and a half to recover the ground.
Last year, we managed to put into operation capacities of over 1200MW, a record for the last decade in Romania! At the same time, in 2023 we reached 619MW. Thus, in the last two years we have connected to the national energy system a total capacity greater than in the entire period 2014-2022! What does each new MW entered into the system mean? The chance for Romanians and Romanian companies to have lower bills. So a better life and more development, jobs and competitiveness for the Romanian economy.
We have ongoing investments of 14 billion euros, non-refundable money, and the ambitious objective for this year is to put into operation production capacities of 2400 MW, double that of last year! If everything goes well, we will set a new record after 2012 (3476MW), the best year since 1989. We have projects such as Iernut, Mintia, Răstolița in advanced stages of work, but also new initiatives in the areas of wind energy, solar energy and storage solutions. I will keep you informed of all these developments.
These investments represent not only a response to the immediate needs of our country, but also a clear signal regarding the determination to consolidate our leading position in the energy field, ensuring our energy security and independence, but especially lower prices for Romania and for Europe,” concluded Sebastian Burduja.
