Hidroelectrica: In advanced-phase Bumbesti investment, we're asked to protect an alder, a fish and a never found crayfish

  The Bumbesti investment is in an extremely advanced phase, but there we have to protect a fish that has no economic importance, as well as a crayfish that has never been found, said Bogdan Badea, president of Hidroelectrica's directorate, on Wednesday."In Bumbesti we have resumed all procedures in accordance with the current legislation. We are in an extremely advanced phase. We have been submitting the documentation for more than two and a half months to enter the last stages of the evaluation for obtaining the environmental agreement. As of now, we have not received any feedback from the authorities. In this case, we have a series of tasks given by the environmental authorities in terms of the measures that we need to implement in order to be in line with what the people at the Protected Areas are asking of us. We have to protect an alder that is found in all of Europe. We have to protect this fish which, also from public information, does not represent and has no economic importance whatsoever, and we have to protect a crayfish that has never been found, but would be conditions to live there. In such derisory situations we find ourselves with the measures we should implement. Moreover, we have the obligation, for ten years, to look for that crayfish. No one has found it yet...In Rastolita, since 2017, when we obtained the Government Decision of expropriation on that investment objective, we have taken all the steps, but similar to the situation in Bumbesti, the authorities ask us from our own initiative to revise the environmental agreement, although we have the construction permit," stressed Badea, within the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry for establishing the causes of the substantial increase of the prices of natural gas and electricity.He added that it is not normal that, once approvals and agreements have been received for any large, long-term investment objective of commissioning, a company should be obliged to stop the works "and ask the authorities whether or not they are still valid".In reply, Octavian Patrascu, director of the Regulatory Directorate of the National Agency for Environmental Protection (ANPM), said that, at the moment, for Hidroelectrica's investment, the Impact Assessment Study is being analyzed, which includes both the Adequate Evaluation Study and the Study on Water Bodies, the conditions "put in the standard form and in the application for declaring the Jiu Gorge National Park and in the Management Plan that is not yet completed."Hidroelectrica announced, at the middle of last year, that it planned the execution of new projects with an estimated value of almost 18 billion lei, with a total installed power of 713.62 MW, which can ensure an average annual production of 3,396.79 GWh/year, according to the investment strategy published by the company. One of the projects is aimed at the Jiu River Hydropower Development (AHE) on the Livezeni - Bumbesti sector, and the estimated term of commissioning was 2022.AHE Rastolita is another project under consideration, the completion of the investment objective being decided on the basis of the results of the financial analyses and the profitability calculations regarding the technical-economic efficiency made by Hidroelectrica's internal committees. By completing these works, the energy intake in the SEN (National Energy Grid) will be about 46.3 GWh annually.For Rastolita Phase 2, Hidroelectrica is considering the analysis of the optimization of the remaining works to be executed for Phase 2. If the value of the optimized works will lead to favorable economic indicators, about 70.7 GWh will be produced annually.The estimated deadline for commissioning for Phase 1 is 2022 and 2027 for Phase 2, respectively.