The latest requests and observations of the European Commission for the completion of milestones 129 and 133 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan will be implemented according to the terms provided in the regulation, informs the Ministry of Energy.
The European Commission issued, on Tuesday, a positive preliminary assessment of the second payment request requested by Romania within the PNRR, after analyzing and finding that our country met 49 of the 51 milestones and targets assumed in this sense. The EC signaled that two milestones related to energy investments (milestones 129 and 133) were not satisfactorily achieved.
Milestone 129 concerned the signing of contracts for the construction of a capacity of new electrolyzers of at least 100 MW, within a competitive procedure, and Milestone 133 concerned the signing of contracts for high-efficiency cogeneration projects on gas and central heating, the nature of the call being a non-competitive one .
The Minister of Energy, Sebastian Burduja, specified that there were administrative reasons that led to this situation, the Audit Authority of Romania carrying out an analysis of these benchmarks and declaring them to have been met.
“There were discussions with the European Commission. Hydrogen is the first scheme at the level of the European Union that was practically approved as part of the PNRR, so Romania is a pioneer at the European level and the European framework is constantly evolving. Likewise, the regulatory framework at the level national. Regarding the cogeneration plants – again there were administrative reasons. We will solve them urgently. PNRR is a chance for the development of Romania that should not be missed under any circumstances. It is not only a road map, it is a country program , which includes reforms and projects – both components are vital. As I did in the ministry I was in before, one of my main priorities is the timely fulfillment of milestones and targets in the PNRR,” said Sebastian Burduja.
As the coordinator of reforms and investments for the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Ministry of Energy launched calls for specific projects within the following investment measures: I.2 – Renewable gas distribution infrastructure (the use of natural gas in combination with green hydrogen as a transitional measure), as well as green hydrogen production capacities and its use for electricity storage; I.3 – The development of flexible and highly efficient gas production capacities for the cogeneration of electricity and thermal energy (CHP) in urban heating, in order to achieve deep decarbonization for the achievement of milestones 129 and 133.
“In the following period, the Ministry of Energy will implement the Commission’s suggestions and observations in order to complete the two milestones, and at the same time, it will fall within the time horizon requested by it,” added the quoted source.