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Romania’s Energy Ministry has signed 27 contracts totalling 138.25 million lei (€27.8 million or $30.4 million) to enhance energy efficiency in the industrial sector, according to SeeNews. These contracts, part of Romania’s National Resilience and Recovery Plan (NRRP) and funded by European Union, aim to help unspecified beneficiaries manage energy costs and increase production capacity, stated Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja in a press release on Wednesday.
‘Modernizing equipment and implementing energy management systems will cut energy consumption significantly, by up to 70%; reduce carbon emissions; and, crucially, boost the competitiveness of the Romanian economy. This will lead to higher revenues for Romanian businesses and better-paying jobs,’ Burduja commented.
The NRRP’s industrial energy-efficiency component has a total budget of €64 million ($69.9 million) and targets optimizing technological processes, achieving energy savings, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 30% compared with pre-financing levels. Eligible projects include equipment installation and modernization, construction related to industrial processes, and the implementation of dedicated energy management systems.
Despite challenges from the energy crisis, the Ukraine conflict, and raw material shortages, the industrial sector accounted for a significant, 19.6%, share of Romania’s economy in 2023, underscoring the need for strong government support to revitalize the industry, Burduja noted.
Furthermore, last week, Romania’s Energy Ministry allocated over 2.2 billion lei to power distributors for grid modernization and 66.56 million lei to universities and municipalities for renewable energy and storage development. These allocations were part of non-refundable financing from the EU’s Modernization Fund. The funded projects to power distributors, worth over 3.5 billion lei, aim to modernize distribution networks, replace overhead lines with underground cables, enhance electricity transmission capacity, and improve energy efficiency in 33 counties. The green energy projects developed by the beneficiary universities and municipalities have a total value of 71.5 million lei and a planned capacity of 10.29 MW.
