Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Wednesday that the government is pursuing five strategic directions to develop Romania's electricity sector, aiming to lower prices and strengthen energy security. He noted that energy costs depend on both production capacity and market regulations. "We need to increase our production capacities and improve regulations, so that together they lead to lower energy prices and better energy security," he told a press conference at Victoria Palace.
The head of the government said that the first direction is unblocking viable projects and freeing network capacity so as to reduce access costs by eliminating speculative technical connection permits. "This means abolishing speculative permits that block or increase the cost of access to electricity networks," he explained.
The second direction is improving the performance of state-owned energy companies, which play a key role in Romania's energy production, so their performance indicators must be revised. "They must be measurable, relevant, and include clear criteria for losing the mandate if indicators are not achieved," Bolojan stated.
Reducing distortions in the energy market is the third direction. According to the prime minister, market volatility significantly affects final consumer prices, and the government aims to reduce the volume traded on highly volatile daily markets and expand long-term contracts with end customers. "We need to reduce volatility, expand long-term trading and stimulate suppliers to do this, including by reducing outstanding payments owed to them," he said.
The fourth direction to follow is increasing storage capacity. Given Romania's growing share of wind and photovoltaic energy, Bolojan said the next years must become "the years of storage". Through Energy Ministry policies, support schemes, NRRP projects and modernization-fund financing, the government plans to expand storage to stabilize the system, he explained.
The fifth direction concerns support for major investments that can reshape the energy market, including cross-border interconnections, large production projects and accelerated investments above a certain threshold. Simplifying authorization and expropriation procedures is also part of this effort, he noted.
Bolojan said these five directions will be implemented through short- and medium-term actions coordinated with the Energy Ministry and regulators.
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