The equivalent of daily heating of 75,000 apartments in Bucharest is lost due to old district heating networks, which have huge losses, declared on Thursday, the Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan, at the end of the meeting of the National Energy Command.
“At ELCEN, it is a 50-year-old technology. The moment it is overloaded, with a systemic lack of investment in the last 35 years, the installations end up failing. At the moment, there are big losses in Bucharest. For example, the equivalent of heating of 75,000 apartments is lost, every day, due to networks that have huge losses”, explained the minister.
He mentioned that he had prepared, “since last year”, a national program for the full modernization of the CHPs, with the World Bank, with the best specialists in the world, “in order to have financing and to solve once and for all the problem of CHPs and district heating in the big cities in Romania”, he said, according to Agerpres.
Regarding the possible merger between ELCEN (Electrocentrale București) and Termoenergetica, Bogdan Ivan had discussions on this topic last year with the former general mayor, the former interim general mayor and several district mayors.
“The discussions focused on the logic of no longer using the strategic companies of the Romanian state for political games. When we have a mayor who also has the production and distribution of heating in his backyard, it is correct and natural that he can intervene in this system. Now it is a game of cat and mouse in which ELCEN is not paid on time, although it produces heating. It is a company that is accountable to its shareholders. We are taking into account any discussion. (…) I support any option through which we will be able to work, in a correct, transparent way, both for ELCEN, the Ministry of Energy, and for Bucharest residents and the City Hall of the Capital”, emphasized Minister Ivan.
He announced that he will also have a discussion on this topic with the new mayor general, Ciprian Ciucu.
The Minister of Energy, Bogdan Ivan, convened the National Energy Command on Thursday, at the headquarters of the National Energy Dispatcher, considering the weather forecasts for this period. The National Energy Command has the role of monitoring the operation of the National Energy System (SEN) and the National Natural Gas Transport System (SNTGN).