Romania will ask the European Commission (EC) to extend the operating terms of coal-fired power plants by 2-3 years, because it currently has nothing to replace these coal-fired units with, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said in a press conference on Thursday.
“We have proposed to extend the operating terms of coal-fired power plants. We have no other option, in the context in which Romania’s energy must be a secure energy source and we have nothing to replace coal-fired units with at this time, at least. Moreover, the gas-fired units in the restructuring plan at the Oltenia Energy Complex are delayed, we must say it openly. There were tenders, such as the one in Ișalnița, where there was no bidder. The same thing happened, unfortunately, at Hidrocentrale Craiova, with the money from the PNRR, but this is another topic and now we have to see if we do new market studies. New tenders will certainly be needed. All these things generate delays and then we have three things to do. We have to negotiate with the European Commission an adjustment of the PNRR, because this milestone was considered closed, fulfilled by Romania,” Burduja specified, as quoted by Agerpres.
He added that the European Regulation allows discussions on this subject.
“In article 21, paragraph 1, it is written that, if the Recovery and Resilience Plan, including the relevant milestones and targets, can no longer be fulfilled in whole or in part, as a result of objective circumstances, the state may submit a reasoned request to the Commission and the Commission will discuss it. Paragraph 2 states how such requests are approved: the Commission and the Council shall subsequently, by decision, approve it within 60 days of the official submission of the request, with the possibility of extension, if necessary,” explained the Minister of Energy.
According to the cited source, other important points for this year refer to the renegotiation of the Restructuring Plan for the Oltenia Energy Complex and the amendment of the Decarbonization Law, “which is also the simplest, because it depends strictly on the political will we have at the domestic level.”
“In any case, given the current deadlines, we cannot afford, from my point of view, to no longer be able to count on the Oltenia Energy Complex from 2026. We simply have nothing to replace these coal-fired groups with. We will keep you informed of this approach as well. My appeal is to all parties involved. We have an inter-ministerial Coal Committee, which includes MIPE, the Ministry of Finance and several stakeholders – the Valea Jiului Energy Complex. So we all have to pull in the same boat. We had these discussions, so that we could come with a unified point of view before the Commission and obtain these exemptions from the deadlines. I don’t think what we are asking for is too much. There are other European states that have coal-fired power plants until 2049, if I’m not mistaken. It’s true, they have a slightly greater dependence on coal,” added Sebastian Burduja.
The Minister of Energy stressed that he expects ‘appropriate’ flexibility from the European Commission regarding the extension of these deadlines, considering all the progress made by Romania.
“Considering all the progress that Romania has made, considering that the Romanian market is very well interconnected, considering that we are a good European citizen, I expect there to be appropriate flexibility from the European Commission and, in fact, an objective treatment of the situation of Romania, which cannot afford to become dependent on other states, on the resources of other states. On the contrary, it must be a pillar of stability. And I believe that what has happened recently, with the support for the Republic of Moldova, with the evolution of the Neptun Deep project, demonstrates that Romania can play this role. We propose an extension of the term of 2-3 years for the Oltenia Energy Complex,” concluded Sebastian Burduja.