The Ministry of Energy announces today the launch of the call for projects for funding from the NRRP – Investment Measure 3 – Development of flexible and high-efficiency gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) capacity in the district heating sector to achieve deep decarbonisation. The investment will ensure the supply of heat to consumers as coal/lignite is phased out of the electricity production process.

Opening date for call for projects: 30 June 2022, 18:00

Closing date and time for project submission: 15 August 2022, 17:00

The objective of the investment measure is to make investments in high-efficiency, flexible, natural gas-fired combined heat and power units/plants in the district heating sector, ready for blending with renewable/low carbon gases, including green hydrogen, enabling the plants to reach the threshold of maximum 250g CO2 eq/KWh over their economic lifetime.

Projects eligible for funding under the call must provide for the construction or modernisation of high-efficiency cogeneration electricity and heat production units in the centralised, gas-fired, flexible, high-efficiency cogeneration sector. Investments must replace at least the same capacity of power and/or heat plants with significantly higher carbon dioxide emissions (e.g. coal, lignite or oil-fired), thus leading to lower GHG emissions.

Technical solutions for the realisation/upgrading of high-efficiency combined heat and power units in the district heating sector must ensure the possibility of blending methane gas with renewable/low-carbon gases, including hydrogen readiness, and flexibility in terms of ensuring the possibility of increasing the volume of hydrogen that can be used during the economic lifetime of the investment, avoiding lock-in.

The aim of these projects is to increase the installed cogeneration capacity in the district heating system by about 300 MW.

Eligible applicants are

• Companies (small, medium and large enterprises) set up in accordance with the provisions of Law No 31/1990 on companies republished, as subsequently amended and supplemented, or in accordance with the provisions of Law No 346/2004 on the stimulation of the establishment and development of small and medium-sized enterprises, whose object of activity is the production of electricity and heat in cogeneration (CHP) in the district heating sector, within the meaning of Law No 325/2006
• Administrative-territorial units (UAT)/administrative-territorial subdivisions, defined by Law no. 215/2001, as subsequently amended and supplemented, which produce heat energy for supply to the transmission and distribution network to provide the public heat supply service

The total estimated budget of the scheme is the lei equivalent of 388,050,000 euro (lei equivalent at the exchange rate of 4.9195 RON/EUR), composed of 298,500,000 euro European funds provided through the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan – Component C.6 Energy and national funds of 89,550,000 euro by applying the 30% over-contracting percentage.