Romania’s biggest problem stays energy inefficiency, says official

The biggest problem for Romania is still energy inefficiency, given that the quantified losses in coal energy units reach up to about EUR 4 billion annually, said on Tuesday Iulian Iancu, chairman of the Committee for Industries and Services of the Chamber of Deputies.

The system is inefficient, he added, the loss percentage is between 24 and 26.1 in the last four years and only 15 percent of production reaches the final consumer of one hundred units of coal energy. The percentage of vulnerable consumers increased to 42 percent, while the energy consumption for the population is higher than the consumption in industry and even that in agriculture and transport services together. “In the consumption structure it is abnormal to have such high consumption for the population compared to other sectors,” said Iulian Iancu.

Another topic on the agenda was the cogeneration. “Policy bonus will be reconsidered given that bonuses given so far, as those for cogeneration, have not reached the original purpose, namely to be a source for investment in efficiency,” Andrei Gerea, minister of energy, said. They turned into an existence support for the producers of energy and heat.

The minister said that Romania must find a balance between measures to increase energy efficiency and the maintenance at an appropriate level of Romania’s capacity to face all the challenges at regional level. “These things should be reconsidered (…) so that we can balance all these challenges, not to be put in a position to finance a sector at the expense of another. I think here about the conflict that has existed in recent years between renewable energy sector and the production of energy from coal.”

Representatives of central authorities and energy industry took part at the “Energy efficiency and climate change adaptation process: fundamental priorities for Romania” forum organized at the Parliament Palace on Tuesday.