The main combined cycle power plant projects, except for Iernut, but also Mintia, will be delayed, the 2026 commissioning deadline being clearly exceeded, Laurențiu Ciurel, former director of CE Oltenia, told Energynomics.
He claims that the market also lacks components and subassemblies, such as turbines, but also that projects in Romania are stalling, for the most part (with the aforementioned exceptions, Iernut and Mintia), in the case of CE Oltenia – especially because of partnerships.
“[The European market lacks] not only turbines. There are a lot of components, feed pumps, boilers… At least the European companies have three to four years of assured flows, they have to take something out of production to add us, according to a director [of one of the big European manufacturers]. You can’t wait for people to come to the auctions, you have to have discussions beforehand, you can’t give a deadline of two years to finish the work, it’s absurd,” he added.
The Mintia plant is much more advanced, but there too there are problems, as the authorisation for the construction of the gas pipeline was obtained very late, which will lead to potential delays. “It’s been going on for years, and to reach full capacity. It will probably start in stages. However, until the Cernavodă Group is shut down, there is no chance, with the exception of Iernut, that any of these plants will be in operation,” Laurențiu Ciurel added.
Romania will request the renegotiation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu declared on Friday that Romania will request the modification of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), and this will most likely be done in March. ” We are in an economic dynamic. We thought that certain projects would mature in a certain time, we have certain legislation regarding public procurement, tenders, appeals and it is normal that in this dynamic the PNRR should be discussed after a period of time. Greece and Italy have finished this discussion and Romania is going to have it too. It is normal. I think that in March (this discussion will take place – n.r.)”, specified Ciolacu, quoted by Agerpres.
The Prime Minister mentioned that on Friday he had a discussion with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the priority topic was the payment request number 3 and the renegotiation of the PNRR.
“We also talked about target 119, which provides for the closure of certain coal-fired capacities at the end of the year. There were several negotiations, taking into account that we have an assumed deficit of 7% this year, to try the projects that have very high co-financing from the national budget, to transfer them to cohesion and investments that have lower co-financing to be a priority this year. It is an approach that has started from this moment, together with the Minister of Finance and Minister Boloș we will have meetings with each minister who has the PNRR underway”, stated the Head of Government.
