E.ON: We want to invest more, but investments need în GreenEnergy to be recovered through tariffs
Electricity distributors want to invest even more, but these investments are recovered through tariffs, "because nobody has a money factory at home", and freezing distribution tariffs for one year was not a wise one, throwing companies a year behind, Volker Raffel, CEO of E.ON Romania, said in an interview for Agerpres.
Regarding "green" projects: "we see a strong increase in interest in our solar power generation solutions. The demand for E.ON Solar Home increased 10 times last year compared to 2021. More precisely, during the mentioned period, we handed over 650 solar plants to customers, which means an average of almost two per day. And in the first five months of this year we reached a pace of three per day, the advance being 65% compared to the same period last year. We expect the pace to increase even more, because some of those who have their files approved in the Green House programme come to us to buy and install solar systems from 3 kW to 50 kW," Volker Raffel said.
For companies and municipalities, E.ON has turnkey handed over over 120 solar plants, reaching over 285 PV projects completed in Romania since 2018. In addition, it also focuses on sustainable heating, with interest in heat pumps growing.
"We are also involved in developing a national network of public charging stations along the main transport corridors through the EU-funded NEXT-E and CONNECT-E projects," adds Volker Raffel.
"The installed power of the energy generation capacities through solar panels exceeds that of the units of the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant. But all this power must be connected to energy networks, otherwise it often becomes useless. If the energy produced cannot be properly redistributed, then it is lost. To be clear: with decentralised energy systems, renewables and, in the future, hydrogen, we have right in front of us the biggest transformation of the energy system since electrification and gasification. And the decision in March 2021 to freeze distribution tariffs already threw us a year behind," Volker Raffel added.
"Romania's natural gas resources, which other states cannot boast of, must be used to ensure the transition to an energy sector without fossil fuels. And this must be done within a reasonable timeframe, longer than the one proposed by the European Commission, time to be used by investing in green energy production capacities, but also in infrastructure capable of taking all this energy.
"We have already started, in Darlos commune, the central Sibiu County, tests on domestic customers to verify the functioning of indoor installations and existing appliances with a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen. The first test of this kind in the country has already been carried out by specialists from the project team in Mures County, at the home of one of the deputy general managers of Delgaz Grid. In September, tests will follow in the second locality selected by the company, namely Gornesti in central Mures County. The results of the pilot project will be made available to competent institutions and other interested parties in Romania, for the elaboration of preliminary technical regulations, for the conversion of existing networks to natural gas and hydrogen mixtures, respectively for the construction of new distribution networks - "H2 ready", based on the results of pilot projects and preliminary regulations in Europe and Romania," Volker Raffel said.
"We have invested 2.1 billion euros since entering the Romanian market and we plan to invest another 2.2 billion euros until 2030, namely 700 million euros from European funds, to which will be added approximately 1 .5 billion euros from own sources. The results of the investments made year after year can be seen in the increase in the safety and quality of the distribution service. Last year, Delgaz Grid registered the lowest average duration of unplanned interruptions in the network, which decreased to 76.44 minutes per year, well below the national average of 108.25 minutes, which places the company in the first position among distributors in Romania. Compared to the moment of privatization, when the duration of interruptions was 1,800 minutes/year, the situation has improved more than 20 times," said Volker Raffel.