After three years in office, we have somehow managed to get everyone upset with ANRE, but this is a barometer in the sense that if people are complaining about us, I believe we are doing our job relatively well, stated the president of the National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE), George Niculescu.
„After three years in office, I am much more gray, the kilograms about the same, if I may make a joke. I have been used to this fast pace since my time as Secretary of State at the Ministry of Energy. So, basically, I can honestly say that I have not stopped working. I didn't need too many warm-up matches to know and learn and get to grips with what the Energy Regulator and the energy sector in general is about. That's why I never found any extenuating circumstances about going into this institution and it took me a couple of months before I learned the ropes, got to know the people and generally got to see how the system works. Who is not angry with ANRE at the moment? The suppliers, because we have delays on the cap-and-trade checks. Probably the distribution operators still have a dissatisfaction with the level of the rate of return, the prosumers who accuse us of not supporting them enough. Somehow we have managed to get everybody angry with ANRE. This is a barometer. I mean, if people are complaining about us, I think we're doing a relatively good job”, said Niculescu, according to Agerpres.
According to the cited source, regarding the checks on capping-compensation schemes, ANRE had meetings with the Court of Auditors and the Prime Minister of Romania, as there were different understandings concerning the application of Ordinance 27.
„And when they read the articles of the Ordinance, they did not also read the Explanatory Memorandum, in which the legislator explains what he wanted to write in the articles of the Ordinance. After this, I repeat, which I discussed with the Prime Minister of Romania and the Court of Auditors, I believe that things have been unblocked and we will not have any problems in the joint interpretation of the legislative framework, so that we can get the verifications as close to a normal moment as possible. I know that the Ministry of Energy was also planning to change the advance percentage, to increase it, because the money has been allocated in the budgets of the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Energy and in 2025. I understand that there are some amounts in the 2026 budget as well, two billion lei, I think, for each ministry, if I am not mistaken. So, payments can be made, and if this advance is increased, until we manage to do the verifications, it is a good thing for the suppliers. The regulator made the first change, in the sense that we introduced guarantees for connection tariffs and we changed the philosophy of capacity allocation by introducing auctions, after a broad public debate process, in July 2024”..., said the head of ANRE.
Regarding the Technical Connection Notices (ATR), Niculescu stated that he had spoken about this subject since the beginning of 2024, showing at that time that there were a lot of ATRs obtained and those projects had no chance of seeing the light of day.
„It's a word I generally don't use. I didn't use it when I was in the ministry, I shy away from using it now. Back in February 2024, in an interview, I was saying that there are a lot of ATRs that are being procured and those projects have no chance of seeing the light of day. I am glad that the topics that the regulator has raised for public debate since February 2024 and has taken steps, amend the regulations in July 2024, are still a topic of discussion today. I'm glad that the discussion is alive and that here are the steps that we started, today they are continuing. We put out for public debate, on March 6 until April 6, a new proposed regulation with the increase of connection guarantees from 5% to 20%. Once again, we held a debate, pointed out that energy projects are being put up for sale on OLX-type trading platforms and said that this is not the way to develop Romania's production capacity in a solid manner and not the way to complete the energy transition. Even if some colleagues from the political spectrum are or have been slightly disillusioned with this energy transition, I believe that the process is irreversible and must continue. Basically, in addition to the 20% guarantees, we will introduce and we will actually put in public debate today an amendment to the regulation for obtaining licenses and authorizations for establishment by introducing a guarantee per kilowatt installed, an amount that shows the financial willingness of the investor who wants to make this kind of investment, ”said George Niculescu.
