Oradea Municipality has investments of more than 120 million euros in district heating, rehabilitation projects of public buildings that include the energy restoration of two hospitals, worth 16 million euros, a project to install electric vehicle charging stations, as well as other programs. However, the local authorities are facing some problems in attracting European funds, said Mircea Mălan, deputy mayor of Oradea, during the event “Energy efficiency – how to start, whom to contact” organized by energynomics.ro in Oradea.

“There are difficulties that we encounter in getting projects from ideas to reality. We managed to achieve these projects through a joint effort, together with the local council, our local partners and all government and local institutions.”

Oradea is the only city in Romania that submitted the request for the third stage of the thermal rehabilitation program, two years ago. “We wanted to start to work. At this third stage we did not receive a response to the request for funding. We have another important project, of 19 million euros, which implies that a district will move to geothermal energy, in combination with heat pumps. It is an efficient system, and as a reserve we will maintain the centralized system. For this we also have submitted the funding application, and instead of a clear answer, we receive all kinds of strange notifications… The only conclusion we can draw from here, from the local level, is that at the central level they are not really get ready for this rhythm. By saying this I do not mean that we are great and others are not doing the right thing. There is no political connotation in what I say. I’m just saying that if we look at the topics of our discussion today – automation, cogeneration, cyber security, electric mobility, etc, we will find that almost all the projects that public authorities carry out are based on European funds.”

For small cities, European funds are extremely important

Oradea has its own investment budget of investments of around 20 million euros per year. 10 years ago, this budget was only 10 million euros. Over the last 10 years, Oradea has implemented and is in the process of implementing projects worth 650 million euros. “If we think that the implementation of these projects has been the condition of increasing the budget from 10 to 20 million per year and if we compare it with the total amount of 650 million, we will realize the importance of attracting European funds. That is why, when any problems appear, there are fewer projects for people in the local communities”, he said, mentioning the bureaucratic problems related to the ex-post follow-up of the projects, which resulted in penalties in case of implemented and already funded projects with all legal approvals.

“There is an approach that is difficult to understand in terms of how these projects are supervised,” Mălan said.

He also drew attention to the lack of bidders for tenders, especially those for construction for energy efficiency.

“We have projects put up for auction for the second and for the third time and no one showed,” Mălan added.

GEO 114/2018 was another reason for the lack of offers, as the ordinance introduced minimum salaries of 3,000 lei for all construction workers, the unskilled included, which led to the increase of the bills. “Yet another problem is the lack of skilled workers,” he said.

Mălan added that the project for the introduction of electric car stations is being implemented.

The conference “Energy efficiency – how to start, whom to contact” was organized by energynomics.ro with the support of our partners: Control Point powered by Valmet, ENGIE Romania, Enevo Group, EximBank, Ridgid Emerson, Photon Energy, Termoline.

Over 40 experts from organizations like ANRE, Bjorn, Camera de Comerț și Industrie Bihor, Celestica, Compania de Apă Oradea, Control Point, Danfoss SRL, Dynoteq, Emerson Ridgid, Energocell, Enevo Group, ENGIE Romania, ETA-2U, EximBank, FAIST, ICPE Electrocond Technologies, P Plus 2002, Phoenix Contact, Photon Energy, Plastor SA Oradea, Pomarione, Primăria Arad, Primăria Oradea, Solarvest, Termoline, UAMT attended the event and animated the conversation.