By reducing bureaucracy and implementing efficiency measures, a certain energy sector can develop healthily, and in the coming period, the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) wants to simplify the way in which economic operators obtain establishment authorizations and licenses, said the institution’s president, George Niculescu, at a specialized event on Monday.
“We saw that when the Romanian state set out to support an energy sector, that sector flourished. The best example is the example of prosumers. On January 31, 2025, there were 203,894 prosumers in Romania, 180,000 individuals and approximately 23,300 legal entities, and this was possible from the moment the Romanian Government, the Ministry of Energy introduced that quantitative compensation. So a simpler way in which Romanians could compensate for the amount of electricity produced and not consumed at the place of consumption. And we saw that this phenomenon flourished in over 2,441 megawatts in installed power. We realized that by reducing bureaucracy and through these efficiency measures, a certain energy sector can develop as healthily as possible. What we want to do at ANRE in the coming period is to simplify the way in which economic operators obtain establishment authorizations and licenses”, said George Niculescu, at the third edition of the “Economic Trends 2025” conference, an event organized by the European Federation of Businesswomen (PEFA).
He specified that ANRE is analyzing the entire regulatory framework very carefully and is trying to find solutions to simplify it in such a way that the development of this sector is even easier for producers.
“We are reviewing the necessary documents in such a way as to reduce bureaucracy within the regulatory authority. The second thing we want to do is to introduce some flows that are as efficient as possible in terms of the internal activity of the regulatory authority. And two weeks ago we signed a collaboration protocol with the Politehnica and we aim to transform the Regulatory Authority into a one-stop-shop for energy information. So, practically, any energy investor, with a simple click, will have information on absolutely everything that interests them in the energy sector. ANRE must be an integrator of solutions and communicate them as transparently as possible to energy investors, in such a way that we do these things not only to lend a helping hand to the industry, but to make our job easier. The more transparently we communicate and the closer we have the information to investors, to market participants, the easier we will make our work. We want to have a fast, transparent institution that integrates digital flows, implementing artificial intelligence solutions at the regulatory authority level. These are things that will further facilitate the interaction of market participants with the Regulatory Authority”, said George Niculescu.
He mentioned that the third thing that the Authority proposes for 2025 is for the institution to consolidate its position as a trusted benchmark for electricity consumers in the market.
“Energy consumers in the market must know that the authority is on their side in the coming period. We will exit the regulated market for a period of time. On July 1, we will no longer have a support scheme that caps the price of electricity. On March 31, 2026, we will no longer have a regulated price for natural gas. Here too, the Regulatory Authority aims to communicate with energy consumers, both electricity and natural gas, in such a way that this transition to a newly liberalized market occurs under the fairest possible conditions for consumers, so that they do not experience bill shocks and, obviously, through a communication campaign, I believe that we can achieve this objective. In other news, I believe that in 2025, the trend of putting new production capacities from renewable sources into operation will be maintained. We still have a very high demand for establishment permits and licenses. That is why I believe that this sector will continue to develop. Obviously, we must also have a very good collaboration with distribution operators, because all these capacities for producing energy from renewable sources must be connected to the grid, in such a way that the energy reaches without problems from the place of production to the place of consumption”, George Niculescu also said.