The energy storage market in Romania is beginning to develop rapidly, but the actual pace of projects continues to depend on financing, authorisation and the network’s capacity to accommodate new investments, said Daniel Stan, Marketing Manager at Think Blu Solution, at Energynomics Day, organized by Energynomics, part of Green Energy Expo & Romenvirotec.
Think Blu Solution is a company founded in 2018 by “a handful of enthusiastic engineers,” active in both photovoltaics and storage. According to Daniel Stan, the company currently has a portfolio of over 600 clients at various stages of development and offers services covering the entire project lifecycle, from technical and financial consulting to design, solution studies, feasibility studies, and implementation.
The Think Blu Solution representative pointed out that most of the company’s portfolio is still in the photovoltaic area, including projects submitted for funding lines such as Electric Up, AFIR, and PNRR. At the same time, the storage segment has reached approximately 20% of the company’s portfolio and is growing, driven by demand from existing customers who previously installed only photovoltaic capacities and are now also requesting batteries.
Think Blu Solution is currently working on storage projects ranging in size from 5 MW to 300 MW. Daniel Stan said that the company has 33 customers in the storage segment, with a cumulative capacity of over 2 GW, all of which are new projects, not systems added to existing parks.
According to him, Romania is an attractive market for investments in storage, including from the perspective of foreign investors. The company’s portfolio already includes international clients who have come to Romania and turned to Think Blu Solution for project development. However, high interest does not automatically translate into fundable and feasible projects.
Daniel Stan emphasized that one of the major difficulties arises during the financing stage, when investors and banks demand complete clarity regarding documentation and authorization. In the company’s experience, due diligence processes frequently reveal discrepancies between the documents obtained and the full legal requirements, and these issues can have a decisive impact on the bankability of projects. In the investors’ assessment, it is not only commercial potential that counts, but also the legal and technical soundness of the project.
Another major obstacle is grid connection and, in particular, the reinforcement work required in certain cases. Stan pointed out that there are situations where neither the transmission operator nor the distributors have the capacity to carry out this work on time, even if they are financially committed to doing so. For this reason, projects that appear viable in the initial phase may become unattractive to investors if the deadlines and costs associated with connection increase too much.
In his opinion, most of the storage projects currently announced will not be put into operation. Daniel Stan estimated that, at market level, up to 80% of projects could remain only at the intention or development stage due to “hidden defects”, additional costs and connection problems. In the case of the Think Blu Solution portfolio, the estimate is more optimistic, with the company representative stating that most of the selected projects were chosen to avoid reinforcement work, which increases their chances of completion.
Referring to the business model, Stan explained that Think Blu Solution has invested time in building financial models applicable to storage projects, in a context where the main question from investors remains the investment recovery period. He pointed out that results vary depending on installed capacity and the market in which the system will operate, and that in practice it is not easy to optimally combine participation in the balancing market with intraday participation.
From his perspective, for a stand-alone battery system, the intraday market appears to be the most viable financial model. However, even this option does not yet offer, in all cases, the level of predictability that banks are looking for. Daniel Stan explained that financing institutions want to know not only that there is a commercial opportunity, but also that market mechanisms are clear and stable enough to support the repayment of the investment.
At the same time, the Think Blu Solution representative pointed out that the accelerated development of storage also raises regulatory questions that do not yet have clear answers. He gave as an example the lack of sufficiently precise rules on how numerous storage capacities will operate on the market once they become available on a large scale. In his opinion, these issues should be discussed in advance so that when the new capacities come online, the market can function coherently.
The conference Energynomics Day was organized by Energynomics, on the premises of the Green Energy Expo & Romenvirotec, with the support of our partners: Elektra Renewable Support, Baringa, Big Store, Think Blu Solution.