Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan announced that tenders for the modernization of the thermal power distribution networks in Bucharest would be launched in February. “We will have 500 million euros to make an important step for fixing the heating system (distribution and production),” said Nicușor Dan.
In September 2021, the Bucharest city council announced that the Bucharest City Hall (PMB) will access European funds amounting to 278 million euros for the modernization of the centralized heating system. On November 11, 2020, mayor Nicușor Dan signed the financing contract for the rehabilitation of 22% of the main pipelines of heating network in Bucharest, worth 1,6 billion lei (about 328 million euros), out of which 1,3 billion lei, in non-reimbursable European funds.
The European Funds Minister said last year that the Bucharest City Hall would also get a supplementary financing of 200 million euros under the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience to modernize the district heating system.
“My message to the construction companies working in the industry is that we will be very serious,” said Mayor Dan today. “I invite everyone to sign up for these auctions. It is a lot of work and I assure them that it will not happen the way it has happened so far with the City Hall, with late payments – six months, one year, one and a half years,” he said.
Another 370 million euros should go to ELCEN, the thermal power producer in Bucharest, through the Modernization Fund, in order to increase the efficiency of the plants – Progresu, CET West and CET South.
The City Hall wants to buy ELCEN for one billion lei
The Bucharest mayor announced today the city’s intention to buy ELCEN. “One condition we put in the intention letter was a revaluation of the assets we want to take over to be carried out. I expect [the price] to be less than 1 billion lei. Both ELCEN and its creditors, when the question was raised, in the old administration, agreed to a payment in instalments […]. So, if we get to take over, which is what I want, the price we will have to pay in 2021 is somewhere at 200-300 million lei”, said the mayor.
According to Nicușor Dan “in the best scenario”, the purchase could be made in May. “To redo that evaluation we need one month – one and a half months. As about the rest, there are only procedural steps,” he explained.