Few sectors in Romania generate as many strong opinions — and as many misunderstandings — as energy. In public debates, prices are often discussed in isolation, investments are framed as burdens, and the future is judged through the lens of today’s bills. In Energynomics’ WATTs Next podcast, Ondrej Šafář, Country Manager of EVRYO România, methodically dismantles several of these assumptions, not by offering slogans, but by reconnecting energy policy with basic economic and system logic.
One persistent myth is that Romania’s energy challenges are uniquely Romanian. Šafář rejects this outright. What happens in Romania, he argues, cannot be understood outside its regional context. “When we talk about energy sector, we are connected markets”, he explains, pointing to the similarities between Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and the former Yugoslav countries. Price signals, investment gaps and balancing problems reflect a shared regional structure, not isolated national failures. Treating them as purely domestic issues only leads to misplaced blame and ineffective solutions.
Another widespread belief is that protecting consumers from investment automatically keeps prices low. This, in Šafář’s view, is one of the most damaging misconceptions. Over the past two decades, short-term affordability has repeatedly taken precedence over infrastructure development. The result is a system that struggles to adapt just as demand patterns become more complex. His analogy is deliberately simple and deliberately unsettling: “If you are protecting people against the cost of highways, we will never build any highway, but we will never benefit from the highway.” In energy, as in transport, avoiding upfront costs does not eliminate them — it merely postpones and amplifies them.
Closely linked to this is the idea that investment can wait until technology becomes cheaper or more mature. Šafář argues that the opposite is true. The energy sector is entering a phase where no fully “proven” solutions exist at scale. Distributed generation, batteries, digital grids and advanced control systems are all being tested simultaneously across Europe. “We are in the period where everybody is testing”, he notes, stressing that Romania is not lagging behind Western Europe in this respect — it is, for once, at the same starting line. Waiting for certainty risks missing the moment when systems are being shaped.
Public frustration often focuses on distribution tariffs, seen as an oversized component of electricity bills. Šafář does not deny that grid costs matter, but he challenges the way the issue is framed. The largest share of household bills still comes from active energy, not networks. More importantly, as self-consumption, electric vehicles and heat pumps spread, the role of the grid changes fundamentally. It becomes less a channel for consumption and more a service that guarantees flexibility and security. In that future, consumers will not pay mainly for kilowatt-hours, but for access and capacity — a reality already present in most EU countries.
Perhaps the most subtle myth is the belief that energy transition is only about electricity prices. Šafář consistently widens the frame. Households do not pay for electricity alone; they pay for heating, mobility and fuel. Electrification, combined with local generation, allows costs to shift across this entire energy basket. In practical terms, this means that the success of the transition should be measured not by one line on a bill, but by the total cost of energy over time.
Underlying all these misconceptions is, in his view, a deeper error: the temptation to think short term. Šafář returns to this repeatedly, not as a moral critique, but as a warning grounded in experience. “It’s really wrong to think short term and to really believe that no investment or protecting customers against investments brings any benefit in long term”, he says. The risk is not that Romania invests too much, but that it repeats the same postponements that created today’s constraints.
Šafář’s message is crystal clear. Romania’s energy future will not be secured by delaying decisions, freezing prices or avoiding uncomfortable debates. It will be shaped by whether the country accepts that affordability, resilience and decarbonization are not competing goals, but outcomes of the same choice: to invest early, transparently and with a long-term horizon.
About “WATTs Next”
“WATTs Next” is the new podcast by Energynomics dedicated to energy leaders, designed to provide a clear understanding of the people shaping the industry, their visions for the future and emerging challenges. Its main goal is to go beyond standardized answers and delve into the personal and professional perspectives of the interlocutor.
The interviews are structured in three essential directions:
- Shaping a personal and professional profile, providing an authentic picture of the career path and values of the interviewed leader.
- Analysis of the most current topics, to understand what’s next in the industry, what the implications are for companies and consumers, and what we should prepare for.
- Explanation of some essential concepts, by debunking myths and clarifying complex notions for a wider audience.