Legal unpredictability to stop renewable investments in Romania, says developer

The legal uncertainly in the renewable sector has frozen investments, while some investors may leave the country all together, says Florentina Purice, analyst at Monsson Group, one of the biggest wind developers locally.

Purice reckons “the situation is grave”, because renewable energy has proven to be the cheapest energy source and lowered electricity prices. In so far, the wind sector has attracted some EUR 3.5 billion worth of investments that created more than 4,000 green jobs.

The 2,200MW of wind capacities operating in Romania has sent the power price on the SPOT market to a fresh low of RON 13.2 (EUR 3)/MWh. The analyst says this is a competitive price against other producers.

“This year, we estimate the green certificate will have a maximum cost of RON 53 (EUR 12)/MWh on the electricity bill, but in the same time, renewable energy contributes to the reduction of the energy price in the market,” stated Purice.

The average price of electricity has fallen by 40 percent in the first quarter to RON 150/MWh, from the same period of last year, according to Monsson data. This was due to higher output from renewable sources and a reduction in energy consumption.

Monsson’s analyst says green certificates represent between 10 to 17 percent of the electricity bill, depending on the size of the consumer. State and distributor taxes account for 25 to 50 percent of the price paid by consumers, while the cogeneration tax stands between 4 to 7 percent.

The government moots a reduction of the green certificate support scheme, deemed to generous for a poor country. Large industrial producers have accused the renewable sector of forcing them to pay for green certificates, which harms their competitiveness in the global market.