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AmCham Romania : Private investment in electricity dramatically curtailed, next to zero
Private investment in electricity generation is lacking, and this could endanger Romania's energy security, the representatives of AmCham Romania say in a press release.
"AmCham Romania is carefully following the evolution of the investment flows in the Romanian economy, a situation in which it draws attention upon the lack of private investment in one of the economy's main strategic pillars - the electricity generation. Basically, in the past years the private investment in this sector has curtailed dramatically to almost zero.
The electricity generation park from conventional sources in Romania is obsolete and needs massive capital investment. Significant installed capacities are nearing their withdrawal fro service due to their age, in accordance with the European environment legislation or with the economic performance. An important financing source to replace them, the private capital, is yet facing hopeless hardships triggered by the legislative framework in force.
This clog can generate threats to the energy security of Romania, given that the realization of a new project, from the feasibility analysis' stage to the commissioning exceeds the average term's characteristic values. For example, the projects declared of priority in the energy strategy proposal of Romania need over 5 years from the investment moment to the commissioning," the above-mentioned source reads.
The AmCham Romania officials maintain that in the past years worrisome signals were sent to them in connection with the strongly negative effects of certain provisions with the primary legislation "that basically have disheartened almost all of the private investment and the intents of some financial bodies to support such investment."
AmCham Romania stresses that the attempts to fix this blockage through amendments of the secondary regulatory framework or through trading platforms on centralised markets are not enough to offer solutions for the private investors and financiers, a revision of the primary legislation's provisions being necessary.
"In the absence of some real steps, the medium-term consequence will be an insufficient installed generation capacity, with a direct impact upon Romania's energy security," the source warns.