Romania To Set Up Two National Energy Companies With Similar Mkt Shares – Econ Min

Videanu said the strategy to reorganize the power sector takes into account, among others, a forecast on the country’s energy consumption that sees a 2.5% annual increase by 2025, and the necessary investments to upgrade the current production units, as well as the replacement of non-performing units.

The plan was presented during a hearing at the Chamber of Deputies’ Services and Industries Committee.

Thus, the first energy company will be made of the three power plants in Oltenia, namely Turceni, Rovinari and Craiova, the nuclear reactor 1 and 2 from the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, the state-owned brown coal mining company – Societatea Nationala a Lignitului Oltenia, or SNLO, half of the distributor and energy provider Electrica and two hydro-power plants of Hidroelectrica, namely Valcea and Slatina.

The second national energy company will be made up of power producer Electrocentrale Bucuresti, or ELCEN, the thermal power plants Deva and Paroseni, Romanian pitcoal mining company CNH – Compania Nationala a Huilei, the other half of Electrica, the hydro-power plants Portile de Fier, as well as the hydro-power plants Caransebes, Hateg, Arges, Cluj, Bistrita, Sibiu, Sebes, Buzau and Targu Jiu.

Also, the second national energy company will include Romgaz, through the thermal power plant in Iernut, which the gas producer will take over from Termoelectrica in the account of some debts.

According to Videanu, the two companies will have almost similar market shares, namely of 48% and 44%, respectively. The market shares are due to decrease in 2017, upon the startup of the nuclear reactors 3 and 4 and of new thermal power plants, to 41% and 27%, respectively.

Also, these two companies will have energy production costs of EUR44 to EUR45 per MWh, below the current average price of EUR48 per MWh.

The country’s cheapest energy producer is Hidroelectrica, with production costs of around EUR26/MWh, while the thermal power plant in Galati has the highest production costs, of EUR109/MWh.