Romania needs to invest EUR 10 bln to upgrade its electricity distribution network

Romania needs to invest close to EUR 10 billion to upgrade its obsolete electricity distribution network, Electrica CEO Catalin Stancu said on Thursday, quoted by Agerpres.

“At present, 60 percent of Romania’s distribution and transport network is overdue, meaning it is a relatively old structure. If we are to translate this in figures compared to the average for the Central and Eastern European countries, SAIDI – the average annual power outage by consumer – is less than 100 minutes and in Romania 270 minutes. This means that there is an obvious need for massive infrastructure investment,” Stancu said.

According to current estimate, Romania needs to invest around EUR 10 billion only to upgrade the part of the network that is obsolete.

But the electricity distributors operating in Romania could afford to invest only EUR 350-400 million per year, and at this level the period necessary to upgrade the whole obsolete network is 25 years.