Energy inefficiency remains biggest challenge

The biggest problem for Romania is still energy inefficiency, given that the quantified losses in coal energy units reach up to about EUR 4 billion annually, said Iulian Iancu, chairman of the Committee for Industries and Services of the Chamber of Deputies, Business Review reported. On June 9, representatives of central authorities and energy industry participated in a forum at the Parliament Palace named ‘Energy Efficiency and Climate Change Adaptation Process: Fundamental Priorities for Romania‘.

The system is inefficient, Iancu added in his statement. The loss is between 24% and 26.1% in the last four years, adds the report on Business-review.eu. The share of vulnerable consumers increased to 42%, while the population’s energy consumption is bigger than industry’s and even that of agriculture and transport services put together. In the consumption structure it is abnormal to have such high consumption for the population compared to other sectors, Iancu said.

Another topic on the agenda was cogeneration. Policy bonus will be reconsidered given that bonuses given so far, as those for cogeneration, have not reached the original purpose, namely to be a source for investment in efficiency, said Andrei Gerea, minister of energy. They turned into an existence support for the producers of energy and heat.

The minister said that Romania must find a balance between measures to increase energy efficiency and the maintenance at an appropriate level of the country’s capacity to face all the challenges at regional level. „These things should be reconsidered… so that we can balance all these challenges, not to be put in a position to finance a sector at the expense of another. I think here about the conflict that has existed in recent years between renewable energy sector and the production of energy from coal.”