After some „spectacular” changes in energy in the past 20 years, European policies continue to shape quite aggressively the future of this sector. Changes are inevitable and they will affect the entire chain of production, transmission, distribution, and supply.

„The energy sector looks completely different now compared to the past 15 years and the changes were natural and normal, probably”, said Zoltan Nagy-Bege, Vice President of ANRE, at the conference “Spring Cocktail 2023”, organized by Energynomics.. “Change is inevitable and we have to accept it and, if we can, we have to shape the change, but not try to stop it. The level of our understanding of these changes will shape the future legislation”, according to Zoltan Nagy-Bege.

In the past 20 years, the changes were „spectacular” and were dominated by European policies. Some of these policies were forced but very much needed due to the path we had chosen to decarbonization and renewable energy.

Whether these policies managed to reduce the EU’s dependency on energy imports is still debatable.

„There are still some aggressive European policies regarding the future of the energy sector. We are still going towards decarbonization, mainly the renewables are supported. Probably Romania will follow the same path but we don’t have any other options and we have to comply with the European legislation”, Nagy-Bege stated.

The biggest change is expected in the distribution networks because the role of the operators will change and they will have to get ready for more distributed electricity and they will have to become more like system operators.

Also, suppliers, after a very challenging year in 2022, are expecting to see if there will still be a competitive market for them after 2025.

Nonetheless, the power transmission grid needs massive investments in reinforcements to be able to connect all the new renewable power plants. Also, the gas transmission system has to „reinvent itself” to blend gas and hydrogen and even get prepared for more hydrogen than gas in the future.

„The crisis changed a lot the [energy] market and it will continue to do so but every crisis is a perfect occasion to encourage new solutions, new technologies, and the search for alternatives”, he added.

„Spring Cocktail 2023” was organized by Energynomics. with the support of our partners, among which Electrica Furnizare, Enery, E.ON, Huawei, Photomate, Renomia-Gallagher și Alexandrion Group.