Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan said that during 2026, in order to achieve the goal of Romania becoming a net energy exporter and to cover all its consumption needs from domestic production, gas-fired capacities of about 2,280 MW will be commissioned.
From a practical point of view, in order to be able to lower the final price and to achieve the goal that we had of going from a net importer to a net exporter of energy, to cover all our consumption needs at national level and to be energy independent, during 2026, according to the charts that we started last year with the people in charge, with each project, with weekly progress reports, we will start up with approximately 2,280 megawatts of gas-fired production capacity. Here we have Mintia, perhaps the most important private investment project since 1990 in Romania, with 100% private money, about 1.2 billion euros, and 1,700 megawatts, we have the Iernut project, which has undergone drastic changes in recent times, but we have a very good progress in terms of bottlenecks, which have been completely eliminated, now only the actual work area is next, and Romgaz management has undertaken that this project will be ready by the beginning of the cold season, as well as the CET in Arad and Constanta
the minister explained, according to Agerpres.
In terms of photovoltaic generation capacity that will be completed by December 31, 2026, another 540 MW of installed capacity will be added. There are also 310 MW projects on wind and, with just the projects currently being funded by the Ministry of Energy, an additional 750 MW of storage capacity will be added.
„In parallel with these capacities, we are talking about other private projects that are now underway or being implemented”added Ivan.
He also emphasized that in the coming period, in order to clarify a lot of issues related to the investments from the Modernization Fund, the Ministry of Energy will come out with two practical guides, one for self-consumption in local communities for battery storage for all 1,400 municipalities that have already installed solar panels, as well as with a new line of financing extremely important on battery storage capacities for private companies, which will have a bonus from the Romanian state when they come and install these new storage parks.
„We are also working, following a whole-of-government discussion today, on simplifying the legislation in terms of the deadlines we have for authorizations for production, transmission, distribution of electricity and natural gas, as well as storage capacities, which we will update in two weeks at the latest”, the minister added.
According to him, the most important thing and goal of every public energy investment at national level is to lower the price.
„This was the vision that I took office on: to lower the price and increase electricity generation capacity. If you look at the price comparator, in July we had an extremely large discrepancy between prices below the ceiling of 1.30 lei/kWh and an extremely large polarization around the figures of 1.55 lei and 1.60 lei. After the measures taken together with ANRE, after the market measures that I took together with them, with the producers (...) we already have, six months later, offers on average 10-15% lower and we see that we already have offers below the psychological threshold of one leu, offers very close to the figure of one leu, 1.1 lei and we have increased to 8 offers that are currently below 1.30 lei, which is the price that was capped before the entry of the elimination of the cap on July 1. From this point of view, we can say that we already have stability in the energy market”said Bogdan Ivan.