Energy Minister: We intend to extend deadlines for coal plant exploitation

Romania will request the European Commission to extend by 2-3 years the exploitation deadline for coal plants, because it cannot replace them at present, said energy minister Sebastian Burduja on last Thursday.   “We intend to extend deadlines for coal plant exploitation. We do not have another variant in the context in which Romania must be a safe energy surce and we cannot replace coal groups at the present. Moreover, gas groups from the restructuring plan at Oltenia Energy Complex have recorded delays. There have been tenders, like the one at Isalnita, but there were no offers. The same happened with Craiova Hydropower Plants, with the money from PNRR. We will consider whether we will make new market studies. Certainly we will need new tenders. All these things generate delays and we will have three things to do. We negotiated with EC for a PNRR adjustment, and this aspect was considered fulfilled by Romania,” Burduja said.   He added that the European Regulation allows talks on this topic. “Article 21, paragraph 1 says that in case the Plan of Recovery and Resilience cannot be carried out fully or partially, because of objective circumstances, the state can send the Commission a motivated request and the Commission will take in into consideration. Paragraph 2 says that such requests cannot be made: the Commission and the Council, will later on approval by decision, a deadline of 60 days with extension possibility,” the energy minister explained.   According to the source, other important aspects for this year refer to the renegotiation of the Restructuring Plan for Oltenia Energy Complex and the amendment of the Decarbonization Law, which is the simplest way as it depends strictly on the political will we have at domestic level.   “Anyway, considering the present deadlines, we cannot afford, from my point of view, not to be able to count on Oltenia Energy Complex as of 2026. We simply cannot replace these coal groups by anything else. We will keep you updated about this action. My appeal is made for all parties involved. We have an interministerial Coal Committee, which includes MIPE, the Finance Ministry and several other interested parties- Jiu Valley Energy Complex. Therefore we must all row in the same boat. We had these talks in order to have a unitary point of view in front of the Commission and to obtain these deadline amendments. I do not think that what we are asking is too much. There are other European countries which have coal plants until 2049. It is true, they are more dependend on coal,” Burduja mentioned.   The Energy Minister pointed out that flexibility is expected from the European Commission about the extension of those deadlines, considering the progress made by Romania.   “Taking into account the progress made by Romania, considering that the Romanian market is very well interconnected, that we are good European citizens, I expect the existence of flexibility from EC and an objective treatment of Romania's situation, which cannot become dependent on other states, on the resources of other states. On the contrary, it must be a pillar of responsibility. I think that what has happened lately with the support for Moldova, with the evolution of Neptune Deep project, proves that Romania can play this new role. We intend to extend the deadline by 2-3 years at Oltenia Energy Complex”, said Sebastian Burduja.