In the period 2018-2020, Distribuție Energie Oltenia, from the CEZ Romania group, is one of the only two distribution operators that has increased the level of investments from its own sources. Once again, in 2021, the company expects to reach the planned level, confirmed the general manager of CEZ Romania, during the conference “Future of utilities”, organized by Energynomics. According to Ondrej Safar, utility companies can only prepare for the future by making investments.“We have our investment plan that we communicated, discussed and agreed with the regulator. We have historically complied with our investment plans, and for this year we are expecting to also fulfil it.”
The distribution segment of CEZ Romania continues to invest in smart equipment for the network, in order to automatically manage the local imbalances and the local needs. “We are investing in the IT systems capable to communicate and control such equipment. Also, these systems are capable to collect all the [necessary] data and taking decisions based on these data”, said Ondrej Safar. “We are also investing in people, in current employees, in order to develop their digital skills, but also in our future employees. The changes we are talking about in the energy industry are changes for the next 30-40 years, so it is important to prepare the future generations to run these networks.”
CEZ Romania attracted around 70 million euros in external funds, European and Norwegian funds, “financing which is not transferred in the tariffs”, stressed Ondrej Safar.
The CEO of CEZ Romania is already interested to open a discussion with the national authorities on what is the acceptable level for increased investment in the next regulatory period. He clarified once again that what was invested into the grid is afterwards translated into the tariffs. “So it is not about us as a distributor deciding on how much we would like to invest, about us not investing enough or investing too much. It is about the communication and about the partnership between us and the authorities to find the proper balance”, Ondrej Safar said.
The current regulatory period ends on 30 June 2024, with the next regulatory period starting on 1 July 2024 and running until to 30 June 2029.
The conference “Future of utilities – more, cheaper, safer” was organized by Energynomics, with the support of its partners: Automatica, CEZ Romania, Eaton Electric, Kawasaki Gas Turbine Europe GmbH, Schneider Electric, Transelectrica.