Romania to exempt heavy industry from green energy costs

Newsroom 18/04/2014 | 11:57

Romania plans to exempt large industrial energy users from paying up to 60% of their renewable energy costs for 10 years, the economy ministry said on Thursday (17 April), hoping to avoid the threat of job cuts in an election year.

“Beneficiaries will pay the following percentages for the number of green certificates: 15 percent in the case of an electro-intensity bigger than 20 percent, 40 percent for an electro-intensity of 10-20 percent and 60 percent in the case of an electro-intensity of 5-10 percent”, according to the law project.

The draft decree, now up for public debate, would be the latest in a wider set of measures the leftist government has enforced this year, in order to help industrial consumers cope with high power and gas bills. Its availability would stretch over 10 years and European Commission approval is required.

The scheme gives developers green certificates for each megawatt generated, and forces power suppliers and large industrial users to buy them based on a gradually increasing annual quota set by the country’s energy regulator.

“It is important to create the conditions necessary to maintain local industry output,” Economy Minister Constantin Nita said in a statement.