Hydrelectrica plans to put up for sale a total of 22 small hydropower units and 3,200 square meters of land in Târgu-Jiu, said for Mediafax news agency Remus Borza, the owner of Euro Insol, the company that manages Hidroelectrica’s insolvency. “Tomorrow (Tuesday – editor’s note) it shall be approved the sale of 22 small hydropower units,” said Remus Borza.

Small hydropower units are power production plants with an installed capacity of up to 10 MW and receive aid in the form of green certificetelor for generating electricity. The land will be put on sale at a starting price of 200,000 euros.

In late January, Hidroelectrica put on sale 14 small hydropower plants, for which it asked 10.4 million euros, but has only managed to sell three units for 2.5 million euros. The company also sold 14 small hydropower units in June 2013, for a total of 10.5 million euros.

According to Borza, Hidroelectrica owes to banks 250 million euros, while in the month of June 2012, when it first entered in insolvency, the company register “real debt” of 660 million euros.

Hidroelectrica will sell 88 small hydropower plants between 2013 and 2014, i.e. less than 1% of its total installed capacity, on the grounds that the revenues generated by them are lower each year than their costs of operation and maintenance.

At a summit held recently in the field of hydropower, financing, fiscal pressures from the authorities and support scheme for this type of power plants were burning topics and investors and manufacturers of microturbines were pessimistic about the immediate future of these units in Romania.