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Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has called for tighter grid connection rules, claiming that 90% of issued approvals are for “speculative” energy projects, whose developers do not intend to build power plants but instead resell the permits for profit. He said the practice is blocking access to the grid and placing a burden on serious investors, Profit.ro reported. Romania’s energy regulator has proposed stricter criteria, although some developers warn that the measures could also affect legitimate projects already under development.
Romania’s economy needs about 9,000 MW of capacity, while technical grid connection approvals had been issued for over 78,000 MW by the end of 2025, a figure that has now risen to 80,000 MW, according to Bolojan. These approvals were issued in the last three years, and analyses showed that less than 10% of that capacity had progressed into actual investments, he noted.
Bolojan: Less than 10% of allocated grid capacity has progressed to actual investments
Serious investors, Bolojan explained, are forced either to buy projects from those who already have approvals or to pay additional costs of grid capacity expansion to connect their projects.
He stated that many of these approvals would have to be cancelled, alongside introducing stricter granting criteria, shorter deadlines, and higher financial guarantees required from investors.
However, several developers of power plant and energy storage projects with proven track records believe the measures proposed by the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) are too harsh and likely to hinder serious projects at advanced stages of development, according to the news outlet.
ANRE’s proposals include introducing maximum deadlines for obtaining an establishment authorization (Romanian: autorizație de înființare), of 12 months from signing the grid connection agreement and 18 months from the issuance of approval. For developers who already have a connection contract, the deadline would be 12 months from the entry into force of the new rules.
ANRE has proposed deadlines for obtaining establishment authorization for projects with a grid connection approval
The energy regulator also proposes the automatic cancellation of connection approvals and execution of guarantees if deadlines are not met.
Some developers, on the other hand, propose a longer deadline, of 24 months from the entry into force of the new regulation, with the possibility of a one-time extension of up to 12 months, provided the investor can justify the delay.
ANRE has also proposed increasing the financial guarantee for issuing a connection approval from 5% to 20% of the grid connection fee. However, Bolojan believes that even this is insufficient and says the government will propose setting the guarantee at 10% of the total investment value, not the connection fee.
Romania is introducing auctions for grid capacity allocation
Romania is also introducing auctions to replace the current first come, first served system for allocating grid capacity, with the aim of filtering out speculative projects from viable ones, the article adds.
A public debate on ANRE’s proposals for tighter grid connection rules is due to be held tomorrow.
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