Hidroelectrica plans to invest more than €800 million in its power generation plants by 2025, said Radu Constantin, a member of the Executive Board. Last year, the company signed investment projects worth €300 million, including €188 million for the modernisation of the Vidraru hydropower plant, a project that is to last seven years.
“Putting these two years together, Hidroelectrica will have projects worth more than €1 billion, with a budget dedicated to investments and projects for the upgrading and modernisation of power plants in Romania. We are at a crossroads where, if we do not look to the future and do not take certain measures now to stabilise the entire national energy system, from production to supply, Romania would lose an important opportunity”, Constantin said at the conference “Romanian Energy Market – Facts of 2025”.
According to Mr Constantin, last year saw remarkable progress for the last 30 years in Romania in terms of some historic investments that Hidroelectrica manages. For example, the company has recently obtained the environmental authorisation for an investment at the Răstolița power plant, a project that has been blocked for several years. The realisation of this project would add more than 200 MW of installed capacity to the national energy system. Other projects in various stages of realisation are Surduc, Siriu, Bumbești Livezeni and Pașcani.
“I mention Răstolița because last week we won a new stage in court, a new battle with certain non-profit organisations that defend nature. Everyone is free to defend nature as they wish, but I can tell you that Romania cannot overcome this energy crisis with nature and goldfish alone. Our main objective, and that of the Energy Ministry, is to finalise all these historic investment projects. All these efforts that we are making must be finalised with the objective of having energy at a competitive and rational price for the end consumer”, Constantin added.
He warned that liberalisation of the energy market must be done very carefully, especially as such attempts have already been made in Romania. This liberalisation project should also take into account the mistakes made in the past.
“I don’t know if we have learnt very well from past mistakes. The first full liberalisation was in 2018. It was the first year, after a pro-European path and in line with the European Union’s requests, that we liberalised this market. However, we had already started in 2005 and it took 13 years. After that moment of liberalisation, during the beautiful period between Christmas and New Year, OG 118 came along, which obliged producers to deliver at regulated prices from March 2019. It was a distortion of a path that we had been following for 13 years and which ended in a week between Christmas and New Year. I didn’t sleep very well during those times. Subsequently, on 1 January 2021, we thought it would again be a zero moment for the liberalisation of the energy market. The bottom line is that we are a month and a few weeks before 1 April and we are waiting to see what exactly we are going to do,” Constantin said.
The conference “Romanian Energy Market – Facts of 2025” was organized by Energynomics with the support of our partners: Alive Capital, Elektra Renewable Support, Enevo Group, Hidroelectrica, Nano Energies. Software Media WEBUS 4 ENERGY, Think Blu Solution.