The Ministry of Energy has commissioned a study from the World Bank on investment solutions in district heating in 27 cities in Romania with a centralized heating system for the population, Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan said on Monday at the end of the National Energy Command.
“At the level of the Ministry of Energy, we commissioned a study last September, based on a contract with the World Bank, for the best specialists in the world to analyze what Romania needs today in terms of district heating. In April, the study will be completed and we will know very clearly how much we need to invest and where in the 27 cities in Romania that today have a centralized heating system for the population. We requested this study so as not to leave any city behind. We are not patching up and repairing 20 km of pipeline, we are also repairing a 60-year-old boiler. We will know that we need, for example, ten billion euros in five years in Romania. We are using money from European funds”, the minister said.
According to him, certain interest rates of 2%-2.1% have already been negotiated with the European Investment Bank for the difference in money in district heating. “These plants will produce electricity and heat. They will have to be profitable companies and will come under the financial control and discipline of the European Investment Bank. I have long given up thinking about the state budget when it comes to investments of billions of euros. From 2026, we will lay the foundations for real, predictable financing for the next five years for every municipality in Romania that currently has district heating systems,” explained Bogdan Ivan, according to Agerpres.
He added that, after the completion of the investments in 2030, “Romania will have another 30 years in which it will no longer have problems with either the district heating networks or the production of heat.”
Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan convened the National Energy Command on Monday, January 19, at the headquarters of the National Energy Dispatcher, in the context of low temperatures.