The reorganization plan of the Oltenia Energy Complex is experiencing delays, namely the new gas and solar power plants will not be ready until 2026, so we cannot close the lignite mines until then, as the Romanian state committed when it received the agreement from Brussels for state aid of 1.2 billions of euros granted to the Oltenia Complex. The problem is that the deadline for giving up coal was a milestone in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) for which Romania has already collected money.
Transelectrica will carry out a system adequacy study, which will be available towards the end of next year. Based on the data from the study, we hope that we will have new arguments before the European Commission for keeping in operation some groups from Turceni and Rovinari, although also the exploitation of lignite, for a period of time. The minister gave the example of Poland, which made the decision to keep coal production until 2049. In the case of Oltenia, we may need to use coal for another year and a half to two years before the new capacities can be put into operation. “But, once again, the promise was that we strive and present all the arguments from the perspective of the Ministry of Energy”, Burduja pointed out. He also added, later: “We have to come up with arguments from the area of unforeseen events”.
Asked what caused this delay and who is to blame, the minister replied.”We are in the process of analyzing what happened, there is also a team of the control body there, they have completed a partial report that we have submitted to all the responsible institutions, including the criminal sphere. The report covers the security incident and the way certain purchases were made. I cannot give you more details, because there are ongoing criminal investigations”.