Authorities are analyzing a new amendment to the Grid Connection Regulation, to eliminate the Technical Connection Approval, according to the president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE), George Niculescu.

“From the point of view of the regulatory authority, this rate of return must take into account the affordability level of consumers, because they will ultimately pay for these investments and obviously the chronic need, today exacerbated, for investments in distribution networks. We want to have access to the network under the easiest possible conditions and that is why I want to make an announcement, because we have just started this series of reducing bureaucracy at the level of the Regulatory Authority. I want to tell you that we are considering, it was proposed to us by our colleagues in the authority, a new amendment to the connection regulation in the sense of eliminating the ATR. It is a proposal that I have on the table. It is something that we are still reflecting on. Allow me to announce it publicly today. Obviously, we will go through absolutely all the legal procedures for decision-making transparency if internally we consider this decision to be feasible and that we achieve the desired goal: reducing bureaucracy, shorter deadlines and ultimately easier access to the network for both consumers and producers, in general for all network users,” Niculescu said on Tuesday, in a debate on the role of the energy sector in economic development, according to Agerpres.

According to the cited source, ANRE is a neutral and equidistant arbitrator between market participants, operators and consumers of electricity and natural gas.

“Our mission is to maintain the balance between these factors. Law 123, on electricity and natural gas, tells us that we, the regulatory authority, have the obligation to approve distribution tariffs only if they are justified, efficient and transparent. Taking this into account, I want to tell you that the investments presented as necessary, with which we all agree, must be made in the distribution networks. At the same time, the increase in costs will be borne by electricity consumers. We must keep in mind that in order for this to happen and to reach this multiplication factor of one to ten, rather one to five, in Romanian, “All the planets must align”. We must take into account all the systemic inefficiencies that we have in Romania”, explained George Niculescu.

Financial Intelligence and the Federation of Associations of Energy Utilities Companies – ACUE are organizing, on Tuesday, the debate on the theme “The role of the energy sector in the development of the economy”.