Romania has quite advantageous legislation from the point of view of the consumer and prices are capped at fairly low levels, especially for electricity, which is why measures and investments in energy efficiency could be limited, said on Tuesday, in a specialized conference, Zoltan Nagy-Bege, vice-president of the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE).

“Energy efficiency will have a very important role because, in the end, you overcome the crisis through measures in two directions: increase production and decrease consumption. We have quite advantageous legislation from the consumer’s point of view and prices are capped at certain levels, especially in electricity, that are quite low. As long as prices remain at this level, energy efficiency measures and investments will probably not be stimulated, the potential will be limited. We, the authority, of course, will try to remain open and pay attention to the needs of the market, try to understand these technological changes that, naturally, have appeared and will continue to come from the energy sector, to understand them, to be able to react at the level of legislation – and I hope that other institutions involved in this legislative process will do the same,” said Zoltan Nagy-Bege, according to Agerpres.

He stressed that the energy sector, especially in the light of the crisis, is changing faster and faster.

“Very important technological changes are coming to take into account – and if at the legislative level we manage to understand these new technologies and the need for change, then probably future legislation will reflect this understanding. The better we understand the need for change and what legislation demand these new technologies, the faster and easier we will have the legal basis to integrate these new technologies. And here, first of all, I am referring to those measures that aim to make the energy system and networks more flexible, first of all,”  added the vice-president of ANRE.

According to him, Romania will need investments in networks to integrate those new renewable energy production capacities, for which, in the case of Romania, financing is even offered from the Modernization Fund. The vice-president of ANRE mentioned that 1.4 billion euros were allocated from the Modernization Fund for investments in networks, one billion for distribution networks and 400 million euros for Transelectrica, for the transport network.

“In addition to these grants, we also expect investments from the distributors’ and the carrier’s (TSO) own financing,” Zoltan Nagy-Bege added.