“We are told to come up with solutions. These solutions require an investment of more than EUR500 million. Transelectrica does not have this money,” Transelectrica deputy general manager Octavian Lohan told Tuesday the Mediafax Talks about Energy conference.
“We are in talks with (energy regulator) ANRE for legislative propositions that would allow us to draw this investment. Without this investment, all connection approvals for wind farms say that the plants will run under restrictions. We are currently analyzing much more projects than what we are able to integrate, and we need legislation that forces developers to guarantee the completion of the wind farms,” Lohan added.
The operator official also said that connection requests have been filed for a total installed capacity of 30,000 MW in wind farms, but many developers lack the funds to complete the projects.
According to the company official, some of the investment could be drawn by selling a minority stake in Transelectrica.
“We have pinpointed funding sources, but we need legislation and project triage with respect for their chances of completion. For example, companies from Russia, China, the US or UK said they are interested in buying stock in Transelectrica. Then, we’ve talked to ANRE about a financial guarantee filed by wind farm developers and used when selecting projects,” Lohan said.
The government plans to sell a 15% stake in Transelectrica, coupled with a 12% increase in the operator’s share capital.
“Unfortunately, Transelectrica is unable to reject any projects, unless they are a threat to the national power grid’s security. Right now we cannot integrate more than 5,000 MW from wind farms, so the situation is not good,” Lohan added.
At the end of 2010, Romania had a total capacity of 462 MW in wind farms. By the end of this year, said capacity should reach 1,000 MW, and it is expected to double next year.
Electricity consumption, using all types of sources, has grown by 4.3% on the year over the first nine months of 2011, to 39.12 billion KWh. Electricity resources rose 5.2% on the year, to 46.07 billion KWh, according to data form statistics office INS.
Resources grew as output widened to 23.53 billion KWh (up 5.4%).
The greatest increase was noted in wind farm output, reaching 573.5 million KWh, from 1.8 million KWh in the same interval of 2010.
Romania’s energy strategy for 2011-2035 states, among others, that electricity production will mainly come from nuclear and wind power plants.