Romania in talks with Itochu, EDF on Tarnița-Lăpuștești pumped storage HPP

Romania is negotiating with the Itochu-EDF consortium regarding the construction of the Tarnița-Lăpuștești pumped storage hydropower plant, according to Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja.

The development of pumped storage HPP projects is picking up pace in the region. Serbia has two such projects in the pipeline – Bistrica and Đerdap 3, and its neighbor Romania is closely following the developments.

Sebastian Burduja said Tarnița-Lăpuștești remains the most important energy project in the country. He noted that the endeavor has been constantly delayed and remained under development for 50 years now.

The 1 GW pumped storage HPP, in his words, could provide energy security, more balanced electricity prices, larger integration of renewable energy, and large-scale storage.

A large-scale project needs serious, stable, reliable partners

Burduja noted that he activated the project at the beginning of his mandate, more than a year ago. State energy investment fund SAPE was mandated to conduct a tender for the feasibility study. However, one year later there still wasn’t any progress, so the ministry turned to its plan B, he revealed.

“These days we have continued the discussions with strategic partners from Japan and France, the consortium formed by Itochu-EDF, two global energy giants,” Burduja said on Facebook. Of note, the two companies have earlier expressed their interest in the project.

Two firms are willing to finish the project

EDF is the most important utility company in Europe, producing over 16% of the electricity in the European Union, Burduja asserted. It is also the largest operator of nuclear assets in the world, with approximately 180,000 employees, he added. Itochu has total revenues of almost USD 90 billion, which is 28% of Romania’s gross domestic product, the minister pointed out.

According to him, the two companies are willing to finance and finish the feasibility study as well as project design and to build the power plant.

“A large-scale project needs serious, stable, reliable partners who have proven that they know and can implement large projects. Ones like Tarnița-Lăpușteşti is for our country,” Burduja stated.

Many ups and downs

The project went through a series of ups and downs over the last nine years. Back in 2015, only companies from China were interested in it. Preliminary bids were filed by five potential investors.

However, a year later the government in Bucharest was considering the option to scrap the investment, estimated at the time at EUR 1 billion.

In 2018, the pumped storage HPP project was part of the country’s draft Energy Sector Strategy for the period 2018-2030 with projections until 2050. A year later, Romania’s Forecast and Strategy National Committee (CNSP) started a procedure to find a private partner for the pumped storage hydropower plant.