Photo: Tony Pham on Unsplash
On September 1, there was 3.51 GW in planned renewable electricity capacity in Romania for which project developers obtained all permits. The level was a whopping 90.5% higher than six months before. All capacity with technical connection approvals surged 48.2% to 51.3 GW.
The Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) said it expects 39 renewable electricity plants to be put into operation by the end of the year. The companies developing the projects, with 716 MW in combined capacity, have signed grid connection contracts, obtained construction permits and got the so-called setup or establishment permits from the regulator.
Another 32 facilities, totaling 2.38 GW, are coming online in 2025, according to the estimate. However, the actual installation of the required grid infrastructure remains a major issue, as it does in most of Europe.
The update was for renewable power plants with more than 1 MW in capacity.
The number of projects with all three main permits advanced from 77 to 87 between March 1 and September 1, but the overall planned capacity surged by 90.5% to 3.51 GW.
Total project pipeline is for three times more than Romania’s current capacity
All capacity with technical connection approvals, the first big step in project development, surged 48.2% to a stunning 51.3 GW. It is almost three times more than Romania’s current electricity capacity.
The number of planned units in the category climbed from 878 to 1,111 within the same six-month period.
Renewable power projects of overall 832 MW coming with energy storage units
Out of the 247 projects, for 9.81 MW in total, that have connection contracts and construction permits, 18 of them (832 MW) envisage integrated energy storage. Seven of them or 59 MW are expected to be commissioned before the end of the year, ANRE said. The list includes the ones with establishment permits.
In the same category, developers signed contracts for 65.4% of the overall capacity with Transelectrica, the country’s transmission system operator. The state-owned company will connect the power plants to the high-voltage grid.
The remainder of the contracts were signed with power distribution companies. The low-voltage system in Romania is divided into six regions, with a different firm responsible for each of them. Greece’s government-controlled Public Power Corp. (PPC) owns three: E-Distribuţie Muntenia, E-Distribuţie Dobrogea and E-Distribuţie Banat. Together they account for 12.9% of contracted capacity.
Notably, Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja said this week that contracts would soon be signed for 1.5 GWh in battery storage projects receiving European Union funding through tenders.
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