The President of the Board of Directors of CNTEE Transelectrica SA, Mr. Bogdan Toncescu, and the General Manager of Delgaz Grid SA, the electricity and natural gas distribution company part of the German group E.ON, Mr. Dragoș Bărbulescu, signed, in the presence of the project teams, the Partnership Agreement for the implementation of the Carpathian Modernized Energy Network (CARMEN) project.
The value of the CARMEN project amounts to approximately 150 million euro and its implementation will take place over a period of 6 years, starting with 2023, and will be proposed for funding under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) program.
CARMEN is a project developed in partnership with the Hungarian transport operator MAVIR and is in the process of evaluation at the level of the European Commission in order to be admitted on the 5th List of Projects of Common Interest (CIP) in the thematic area “Smart Grids”. The Partnership Agreement signed today also marks the change of the status of CNTEE Transelectrica SA within the project, from partner – supporter to active partner.
Through the CARMEN project, the partners aim to modernize and develop transmission and distribution networks, as well as increase their interoperability, both at national and European level, in order to achieve objectives of common interest. Thus, it is estimated the modernization of 23 substations, 65 substations, high voltage overhead lines and the implementation of specific IT and communications technologies, the installation in the electric transmission network of modern means of voltage control at the energy system.
„Transelectrica’s vision in the fields of research and innovation, energy efficiency, new technologies, asset management and digitalization aims to achieve the objectives of SMART GRID, an absolutely necessary concept in the reality of energy systems at European level. The CARMEN project is a bold one that foreshadows the definition and implementation of smart grids, based on collaboration principles, technologies and cutting-edge systems for network management. From the perspective of the management approach, our targets converge towards accelerating the investment program and pursuing a corporate strategy that ensures the proactivity and efficiency of our actions.
”We consider as an immediate priority the implementation of all measures necessary to adapt our network to the rigors of the European energy market and industry, especially since the targets assumed by Romania as a member of the European Union through the Green Deal and the Fit For 55 package oblige us to we adopt high standards and focus on areas with high potential to create added value for the entire industry, but especially for end consumers. Therefore, projects like this must be promoted and collaborations between actors in the energy industry must be extended to reach the common goals proposed,” said Bogdan Toncescu, President of CNTEE Transelectrica SA.
“Delgaz Grid’s priority is to accelerate the greening and digitization of the electricity distribution network we manage, in order to integrate in a sustainable way the new clean energy capacities, but also to ensure an efficient and flexible management of energy flows- increasingly volatile – induced by the increase in the degree of penetration of renewables in the national energy mix.
”The CARMEN initiative will become the first Project of Common Interest in the thematic area ‘Smart Grids’ in Romania, representing the most ambitious project of our company, both in terms of technical complexity and budgetary value and a major opportunity for modernization of the electricity distribution infrastructure in the North-East region of Romania,” said Dragoș Bărbulescu, General Manager of Delgaz Grid SA.