Renewables play an increasingly important role in the European energy mix. As renewable energy was subject to a special support system, it created pressure on the price of electricity, which has been declining over the years in Europe since 2008 and also increased volatility of short-term products. This drop in wholesale prices has led to discouraging investors in new units, with the exception of newly subsidized renewables, and Romania was no exception in this process, says Ondřej Šafář, CEO of CEZ Romania.

“In the last two years, the situation has begun to change, electricity prices have started to rise, mainly as a result of rising prices of CO2 certificates, because coal-fired power plants are marginal production units. The situation is even more evident in periods of low wind, when it is cheaper to import energy from abroad than to operate coal-fired power plants because of the price of CO2 certificates,” said Šafář, quoted by investenergy.ro.

“Due to rising electricity prices and the development of technology, we will soon start to see new wind developments, even without subsidies. In addition, domestic companies and customers will produce some of the local energy consumption, motivated by both an environmentally responsible approach and economic reasons for benefiting from a cheaper energy and developing a distributed production. It will be a real challenge for the energy sector to go through this transformation successfully from the point of view of energy security, as well as regarding the economic aspects of such a transformation,” added the head of CEZ Romania.