The crisis situation in the energy market was caused by populism and because the voice of specialists was no longer listened to, claims Teofil Mureșan, president of E-Infra.
“Romania and Europe have reached this point because the voice of specialists was no longer listened to and only the battle for votes mattered. Renewable energy is very cheap and green, but it is unpredictable, it needs other sources in reserve, which can immediately come into operation when there is no sun or wind. These sources, if they only work partially (a limited number of hours), are difficult to amortize and will require high costs when there is no sun. Batteries help a lot, but in winter or when there is no sun, they have nothing to store. In addition, they have a short lifespan and high investment costs. They help for a few hours. So, there was overinvestment in renewables and not in the technically correct energy mix,” says Teofil Mureșan, on his social media page.
“European taxes on gas-fired power plants are the highest in the world and make this energy expensive, although it is safe, regulates other renewable sources, is easy to build and has a relatively low CAPEX. Pollution measures have been exaggerated in this case. European energy interconnection corridors have not been built (what would we be without highways?) that take over the peaks of consumption or production between countries and transfer them according to needs. The nuclear energy industry has been blocked from being financed. Emotionally exaggerated, not technically. There are probably others,” he adds.
“I think we need in the coming years: 1. Battery storage up to 15-20GWh; 1-3 years 2. Reduction of taxes for production in gas-fired power plants or compensation funds to stimulate investments in regulated gas-fired power plants; 2-7 years 3. Investments in classic nuclear and SMR 7-12 years 4. European HVDC corridor M Neagră-M Nordului – 5-10 years”, says Teofil Mureșan.
At the same time, energy expert Otilia Nuțu says that no investments have been made in electricity production for about 8-10 years, until about two years ago.
“The reason, very briefly: the law did not allow an investor to sell energy until 2021, the networks have been blocking the connection of new capacities for years, the Romanian state has been blocking network capacity with mammoth projects that are not being built for years (reactors 3 and 4, SMR, Tarnița, CE Oltenia, etc.), the Romanian state has regulated prices for 3 years, discouraging investments. Investment in storage only started last year, until then the legislation was prohibitive, that’s why it’s not happening. People would change their consumption behavior if we had not only a liberalized market with chiu, wai, but hourly tariffs. In order to have hourly tariffs or for prosumers who have batteries to be interested in selling on the network, you need to know who, what and how, that is, smart meters. We had to install them by 2020, now the deadline is sometime after 2030”, claims Otilia Nuțu, on the social media page.
“Absolutely all “classic” electricity capacities (hydro, nuclear, gas, coal) need a lot of water. The only ones that don’t are photovoltaics and wind. As a result, I don’t understand the stubbornness to continue planning exactly what is proving to be the most vulnerable today, in drought conditions: two more reactors at Cernavodă, micro-hydropower plants on small rivers that would dry up first, gas-fired plants. If we had 3-4 times more renewables installed and 3-4 times more storage capacities now, we would be ok,” she adds.
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