2016 Yearbook Energy Mirror of Romania

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“Romania is in a very good situation. Let me remind you that 15% of the electricity production is exported, and in the natural gas sector we had witnessed a thrilling decrease, importing 25%, 17%, 12, 7 and, last year, 2.3%. This encourages us to approach more boldly the end stages in the process of liberalization” Niculae Havrileț, President, Romanian Regulatory Authority for Energy

“My desire and, I suspect, the desire of everyone here is that these discussions, presentations and, in general, the conclusions of the entire week should be resumed by the organizers in a set of recommendations for the energy industry, for everything that the energy strategy in Romania and in the region represents” Iuliana Andronache, General Manager of Energetica Electrica Company

SAFE AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FOR THE REGION - FOREN 2016 WEC Central & Eastern Europe Regional Energy Forum “Globally there have been many developments that suggest humanity is undergoing the most important transition in history. Basically, as of December 2015, mankind has entered a new era, that of the transition towards a new type of development. In December, fortunately for all of us, the policy makers at the planetary level realized that this type of development can no longer continue. The key to this new model of development is energy, and, in the context of energy, the future belongs to electric energy” Iulian Iancu, WEC/RNC Chairman

“Romania has today one of the most powerful energy systems in the region. And I believe that the Romanian energy system is strong, solid. Its situation is improving. Even if there are areas of tension or areas that are subject to transformations today, they are but a symptom that we must assume, they are the symptom of a process of revigoration, of growing efficiency, of improvement” Victor Vlad Grigorescu, Minister of Energy “Because I’m from Transylvania, where a very popular slogan says: Deeds, not words!, I believe that these three days of talks will generate deeds for the energy industry” Sorin Gal, General Manager, National Agency for Mineral Resources

“Transelectrica will do everything so that energy can circulate in the networks, both from Romania to the outside and cheap energy into Romania, when there is a shortage here, and for this we will develop the Transelectrica network. We have already begun to create crossborder networks, but we still have to strengthen the network in the western regions of the country” Octavian Lohan, Directorate Member, SNTEE Transelectrica SA


Collection: Open4Business Fostered by Transilvania Business

Yearbook, first edition - 2016

Global • Europe • Romania • Gas • Oil • Coal • Hydro • Nuclear • Wind • Photovoltaic • Biomass • Biogas • Thermal • Transport • Distribution • Exchange • Efficiency • Education • Research • CSR • Trends • Projects • Interviews • Events

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Editorial: Ligia Voro Translation: Carmen-Veronica Borbély Creative Director: Răzvan Matei Photo: Agerpres Foto Marketing Managers: Alin Bolbos, Florin Marcel Publisher: Aurelian Grama Publishing House Association Education for Europe & Transilvania Grup Business

Printed at SC Ceconii SRL, Baia Mare ISSN 2501-8361 ISSN-L 2501-8361

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Summary

9-12

13-16

GLOBAL TRENDS The World is changing

REGULATION The ANRE leadership aims for a continuous improvement of its regulatory activity in 2016

ENERGY UNION The Green Europe

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25-30

31-36

GAS The natural gas industry - trends, challenges and solutions

INSIGHT Romania is searching its way

37-40

GAS Romgaz can become a prominent and active regional player on the energy market

49-58

COMPANY PROFILE Romgaz Company Overview 3


62-65 59-61

COMPANY PROFILE OIL EnergoBit is ready to become an important Rethinking strategies in the oil domain player in Central and Eastern Europe COMPANY PROFILE REPCON SA Specialists in hydro works and dams for more than two decades 66-71

COAL Companies that exploit and capitalize on coal are redefining themselves

81-83

ELECTRICITY The growth potential of the electricity sector 4

72-80

87-95

COMPANY PROFILE Hidroconstructia - 66 years of building experience in hydropower projects

96-99

ELECTRICITY - HYDRO Objective: 500-750 million euros for a 15% stake in Hidroelectrica SA WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


106-111

ELECTRICITY - NUCLEAR Daniela Lulache believes in the future of nuclear power producers

ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION We believe in gradual growth through new initiatives and projects

114-115

ELECTRICITY - WIND Romania can double its green energy production capacity

132-133

127-129

134-136

THERMAL ENERGY The centralized thermal power system, in a critical condition

COMPANY PROFILE Nakita, top products and services in the field of work safety

139-151

EDUCATION & RESEARCH Supporting the industry

153-155

ENERGY EFFICIENCY The application of energy efficiency measures can make a difference 5


THE NATIONAL INTEREST IN A GLOBAL MARKET

editorial

Ligia VORO editor-in-chief

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Energy is what fuels the global and, implicitly, the Romanian economy. Without it, nothing would work, at least at the moment. This was what I thought in 2012. Today, four years after I warily returned, having to learn everything anew, to an area that was dear to me once - Energy, Romanian energy - and after I tried to understand it, in all its fullness or in all its emptiness, I’d say that it is beyond imagination, especially for us, those who live in the cities, what it is like to light a house with candles, to drive a horse-drawn cart, to plough the fields with oxen and many more activities that are now dependent on energy. Primary or alternative. I slowly tried to rediscover this sector in all its beauty, the beauty given by the professionals who are still active or have retired, strolling with their grandchildren, and at the same time, its ugliness, given the political pressures and the political interest groups that have parasitically plagued it for so long. Since then, since 2012, much has happened. And much has stagnated in our country. Some decision makers have changed, others have remained entrenched in their seats of power, in control of their projects and programs. At the governmental level, we are closest, from 2007 onwards, to having a national energy strategy, with all its pros and cons and despite the scepticism on the market. Still, I incline to think there are more pros than cons, because bringing the industry’s professionals to the discussion table, albeit by stages, is a starting point. It can tone down the frictions that exist between those who use fossil based fuels and those who resort to renewable sources. In brackets, these asperities are

visible globally, as I found out at the Flame Conference, which I recently attended in Amsterdam. They are generated by governmental inertia, by decisions that are reached without a real impact study and a long-term forecast, f looding the market with green certificates that can no longer be absorbed, changing the rules during the game, causing green bankruptcy, and maintaining, in key positions, the colossi of the energy system, people with political backing who can manipulate masses of people socially and electorally, forgetting the importance of retechnologization, modernization and upgrading, in line with the 21st century, that of adopting visionary medium and long-term programs, like the strategists of the planet are trying to do. The same State, through various institutions, gave with one hand and took away with two hands, by introducing myriad taxes that burden us, the end consumers, and create a clear disadvantage for players on a competitive energy market, especially on a future single energy market as that envisaged one of the European Union, when regulatory barriers at entry on the market will dissipate. Those that have to do with the market know what this is about and how much all these bad decisions cost us, so let’s be direct and not beat around the bush. But I do think that it’s good to learn from the past, not to repeat mistakes and to repair what can be repaired. Returning to the strategy, if it is wellstructured - and so far we have had five reports of almost 100 pages drawn up by specialists and not invented in the laboratory of the Ministry of Energy, solely devised by the Minister and a WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


coming years an important step towards defining a unique entity. The project for a single energy market is slowly gaining shape in Europe. Because the legislation is vast and intricate, a single market will mean, among other things, the integration of all markets, in terms of both interconnections or ensuring the supply from a variety of sources, and from a commercial point of view. This will mean that electricity/natural gas will circulate bi-directionally, in compliance with market rules, and obliging to competitiveness because the players who will not adapt will lose customers and will disappear. Besides what I highlighted in the beginning and what shows, to some extent, what the problems are and what the current situation is in the energy sector, I would like to point out that Romania is gifted with energy resources, despite the pessimistic forecasts estimating, for decades now, the depletion of crude oil and natural gas reserves. Romania has an untapped potential to produce energy from renewable sources. How will the players on the market valorise the natural advantages they have, how will they convince the State that it is facing a competitiveness problem on a future integrated market, how will the energy mix be rethought so as to ensure the supply of energy even when there’s a drought, when the wind isn’t blowing and when it’ not too sunny? How will the state prioritise the big investment projects announced - Units III and IV in Cernavoda, Tarniţa-Lăpuşteşti, the energy groups at the Oltenia Energy Complex and others? How can the green sector be stimulated so that installed production capacities do not shut down, how will the transport and distribution operators be determined to invest in networks and convince the State that theft from pipelines and networks remains problematic, so that losses can be reduced and the effectiveness of their use can increase? These are the questions that come from a layman in energy matters, who will seek answers to them in the months to come. Some have been outlined, but I wouldn’t want to make any forecasts, because less than six months remain until Romania’ s energy strategy will be launched in the public space. Concluding, Energy Mirror of Romania recomposes an energy puzzle and raises, directly or between the lines, a few burning Romanian problems, some spoken out in the public space, others voiced by us in these pages. It’s a first, perfectible step, which we are taking, however, with the good faith that Romania has potential and that by choosing and playing smartly, it can capitalize upon it and bring added value.

editorial

few some grey eminences - it will be a document on the basis of which we can discuss our position in agreement with the European one and it will allow us to have our point of view, not just a heap of papers that we are bound to respect and implement. I believe that through political will and with genuine political people who work in the national interest, Romania can become a force on the regional energy market, through the companies that are far ahead of the political representatives, having switched to corporate governance and connected themselves relationally and professionally to the good world of energy. These are a few thoughts I have come up with during these months of commuting between Bucharest - Constanța – Petroșani – Drobeta Turnu Severin – Brașov – Băile Tușnad and others, trying to take the pulse of the Romanian energy specialists, months in which many of the pages we invite you to browse through have been outlined. We therefore invite you form an idea of what Romanian energy can mean if it is placed in agreement with the global and European trends. The Catalogue, without aspiring to be all-encompassing and without covering everything we set out to do, for various reasons that cannot be detailed here, is structured in such a way as to give us a picture of the global world of energy, which has been faced, over the past year - and which will shape the trend for the future decades - with the issue of greenhouse gas emissions. This problem raises serious questions about the use of coal for industry, the production of electricity and heat, the implicit development of the area of alternative energy sources, the accelerated decrease of the price per barrel, the continuing pace of crude oil production in the Middle East countries, the slow but sure development of the LNG sector, with a slowed down rhythm of investment in the nuclear sector. These would be just some of the global issues seeking answers in the years to come, which will set the global energy trends. At European level, the trend is clear, we are moving towards a green EU, which will involve the decarbonization of the European economies, a faster rhythm of investments in the field of renewable energy sources, establishing the energy mix, so that the end consumer can have cheaper energy, protecting vulnerable consumers, and ensuring a safe and reliable supply of energy. Another regulated problem is energy efficiency, because the European Union both consumes a lot of energy, a significant proportion of the imports, and loses a lot of energy, whether we are talking about buildings, industry, transportation, etc. The European Union will make in the

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THE DEBUNKING OF MYTHS AND THE MOST IMPORTANT TRANSITION IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND The Message of Prof. Dr. Iulian Iancu, WEC/RNC Chairman at FOREN 2016

message

Prof. Dr. Iulian Iancu

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Fortunately for all of us, in these two years, several myths that had made a career in the world of energy were debunked. The first myth was that regarding the peak of oil consumption in the world in 2016. Fortunately, this thesis has been contradicted and if we consider the year 1924, when our Organization was founded in London, when the price per barrel was $ 124, later, as we well know, it exceeded $ 124 per barrel but this year it has plummeted to the lowest level in the past 12 years, basically confirming a claim that seemed shocking a few years ago, when the General Manager of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said: “Let’s leave oil before it leaves us”. That is to say, although, today, oil is at a competitive price, massive investments are being made in renewable energy sources. Mrs. Elena Nekhaev (Director Technical Programmes, World Energy Council) has told us that in 2015 investments in renewable energy reached 356 billion dollars. I must remind you that in 2010 they amounted to $ 148 billion a year, entirely from private sources. No other technology has been able to attract such financial resources from private investors as renewable energy has. Last year it exceeded investments in all other technologies. The second myth was that of the gradual disappearance of natural gas, gradually up until 50 years from now, and the disappearance of natural gas from the preference of investors into the mix of technologies. Fortunately, this myth has also been debunked because following the huge discoveries in certain areas of the planet, in particular in the United States of America and Canada, Romania is fortunately among the States where natural gas can be said to become the foremost new type of energy raw material in the mix of technologies. The third myth was that of the disappearance of nuclear energy from the technology mix and we have all seen the firm decisions of certain States to remove nuclear energy from their agendas, especially after Fukushima. Today, nuclear energy is on the investment agenda of 148 new nuclear reactors, and nuclear power is included in the European Union’s energy strategy as a landmark in the new strategic plan for new technologies, most importantly, from the point of view of safety in use and the switch to nuclear fusion. Today, 30% of the planet’s energy is produced through technologies based on nuclear power.

There was another myth, that of the inability of research, technology and innovation to produce technology, so as to provide additional sources for consumption to the planet and the consumer. Fortunately, this has also been contradicted because today we have mature technology and the pace of the invention and appearance of new technologies is greater than the rate of implementation by governments, investors and consumers. In this context, we are basically confronted with a new type of approach, and this type of approach proves that humanity is determined, on the one hand, to assume responsibly the suffering for this change; on the other hand, there is an unprecedented phenomenon, that of the interconnection of the electricity distribution with communication networks and this seems possible today at continental level, given the digital revolution combined with the technological revolution, following the combination of the two types of technologies and utilities. The best example here is the model released on the African continent by the association of owners of mobile telephony networks in South Saharan zone, where only 14% have access to electricity, so they reached the decision to create new energy production capacities with which, besides the transmission-reception poles used by the telecommunications network, they can supply electricity to the surrounding localities, and all the activity of exploitation and maintenance is done by cell phone. Even the intervention teams, in relation to the consumer, combine data and information through the direct relationship of billing and collecting money, at a level of the 240 million new consumers on the whole continent, because that is also the number of those who own mobile phones. Fortunately, Romania has a set of advantages in the new context of energy policies, i.e. we are able to offer a solution to the Romanian consumer regarding biomass, a potential 48% throughout Romania from the total energyrelated raw materials. Moreover, as regards the use of land, clear and objective criteria have been imposed: by 2020, the land in a biodegradation, desertification, marshification phase should be dedicated and harnessed for technical, energy plants and not only, so that for the 495 thousand hectares available today we may provide hot water and heating solutions for at least 100 small or medium size communities in Romania. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDITORIAL

THE WORLD IS CHANGING 2015 was marked by the international reflections upon climate changes and energy, ended by The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11, held in Paris from 30th of November to 12th of December. 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal – the Paris Agreement. In 2015 as well, energy industry was troubled about the low oil prices which affected the upstream investments and will influence this year’s investements.

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GLOBAL TRENDS To the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11, 195 countries adopted the firstever universal, legally binding global climate deal – the Paris Agreement. The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C. The agreement is due to enter into force in 2020. Governments agreed a long-term goal of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, to aim to limit the increase to 1.5°C, since this would significantly reduce risks and the impacts of climate change, on the need for global emissions to peak as soon as possible, recognising that this will take longer for developing countries, to undertake rapid reductions thereafter in accordance with the best available science. These are not yet enough to keep global warming below 2°C, but the agreement traces the way to achieving this target. So, governments agreed to come together every 5 years to set more ambitious targets as required by science, report to each other and the public on how well they are doing to implement their targets, track progress towards the long-term goal through a robust transparency and accountability system. Also, governments agreed to strengthen societies’ ability to deal with the impacts of climate change, provide continued and enhanced international support for adaptation to developing countries. The agreement also recognises the importance of averting, minimising and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse effects of climate changes, acknowledges the need to cooperate and enhance

Global energy-related CO2 emissions data 2005 27,05 2006 27,86 2007 28,78 2008 28,87 2009 28,32 2010 29,84 2011 31,29 2012 31,49 2013 32,07 2014 32,13 2015 32,14 Source: IEA, March 2016

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WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

Ban Ki-moon, General Secretary of United Nations Organization

the understanding, action and support in different areas such as early warning systems, emergency preparedness and risk insurance. The EU and other developed countries will continue to support climate action to reduce emissions and build resilience to climate change impacts in developing countries. Other countries are encouraged to provide or continue to provide such support voluntarily. Developed countries intend to continue their existing collective goal to mobilise USD 100 billion per year by 2020 and extend this until 2025. A new and higher goal will be set for after this period. The ratification process started on Earth Day, 22 April 2016, and the countries will have one year to sign the agreement. The signature reflects a country’s intention to be bound by an agreement and is a step prior to its ratification. The Paris Agreement will enter into force 30 days after its ratification by at least 55 countries accounting for a total of 55% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Decoupling of global emissions and economic growth confirmed IEA analysis, released on 16th of March this year, shows energyrelated emissions of CO2 stalled for the second year in a row as renewable energy surged. Global emissions of carbon dioxide stood at 32.1 billion tonnes in 2015,

having remained essentially flat since 2013, based on CO2 Emissions from fuel combustion, 2015, and IEA preliminary estimates. . The IEA preliminary data suggest that electricity generated by renewables played a critical role, having accounted for around 90% of new electricity generation in 2015; wind alone produced more than half of new electricity generation. In parallel, the global economy continued to grow by more than 3%, offering further evidence that the link between economic growth and emissions growth is weakening. In the more than 40 years in which the IEA has been providing information on CO2 emissions, there have been only four periods in which emissions stood still or fell compared to the previous year. Three of those – the early 1980s, 1992 and 2009 – were associated with global economic weakness. But the recent stall in emissions comes amid economic expansion: according to the International Monetary Fund, global GDP grew by 3.4% in 2014 and 3.1% in 2015. The two largest emitters, China and the United States, both registered a decline in energy-related CO2 in 2015. In China, emissions declined by 1.5%, as coal use dropped for the second year in a row. The economic restructuring towards less energy-intensive industries and the government’s efforts to decarbonise electricity generation pushed coal use down. In 2015, coal generated less than 70% of Chinese WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


GLOBAL TRENDS

WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

“The new figures confirm last year’s surprising but welcome news: we now have seen two straight years of greenhouse gas emissions decoupling from economic growth. Coming just a few months after the landmark COP21 agreement in Paris, this is yet another boost to the global fight against climate change”, said IEA Executive Director, Fatih Birol.

electricity, ten percentage points less than four years ago (in 2011). Over the same period low-carbon sources jumped from 19% to 28%, with hydro and wind accounting for most of the increase. In the United States, emissions declined by 2%, as a large switch from coal to natural gas use in electricity generation took place. The decline observed in the two major emitters was offset by increasing emissions in most other Asian developing economies and the Middle East, and also a moderate increase in Europe.

Global energy trends to 2040 A second major event that influenced the energy industry was the low oil prices. “An extended period of lower oil prices would benefit consumers but would trigger energy-security concerns by heightening reliance on a small number of low-cost producers, or risk a sharp rebound in price if investment falls short”, says the International Energy Agency (IEA) in the 2015 edition of its flagship World Energy Outlook publication (WEO-2015). World energy demand grows in all WEO scenarios, but government policies play a powerful role in dictating the pace of the growth and the degree to which greenhouse-gas emissions follow the same path, as mentioned in www.iea.org/media/ news/2015/press/151110_WEO_ Factsheet_GlobalEnergyTrends.pdf. In the New Policies Scenario (the central scenario), energy demand

grows by nearly one-third between 2013 and 2040, with all of the net growth coming from non-OECD countries and OECD demand ending 3% lower. The links between global economic growth, energy demand and energy-related emissions weaken:

some markets (such as China) undergo structural change in their economies, others reach a saturation point in demand for energy services, and all adopt more energy efficient technologies. As the largest source of global GHG emissions, the energy sector must be central to efforts to

Countries which gather 55 % of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions Party Emissions (Gg CO2 equivalent) Percentage Year China 7 465 862 20.09 2005 United States of America 6 649 700 17.89 2013 Russian Federation 2 799 434 7.53 2013 India 1 523 767 4.10 2000 Japan 1 407 800 3.79 2013 Germany* 950 673 2.56 2013 * Countries that are member States of the European Union. The emissions of the European Union are 4 488 404 Gg in 2013, which represents the sum of the emissions of the Member States of the European Union in this table, and corresponds to a share of 12.10%. The emissions of the European Union are not counted as additional to those of the member States. Source: unfccc.int (Information on the most up-to-date total and per cent of greenhouse gas emissions communicated by Parties to the Convention in their national communications, greenhouse gas inventory reports, biennial reports or biennial update reports, as of 12 December 2015)

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GLOBAL TRENDS tackle climate change but, despite signs that a low-carbon transition is underway, energy-related CO2 emissions are projected to be 16% higher by 2040. The single largest energy demand growth story of recent decades is near its end; coal use in China reaches a plateau, close to today’s levels, as the country’s economy rebalances and industrial coal demand falls. The largest oil consumer – the United States – experiences one of the world’s largest reductions in demand from 2013 to 2040 (along with the European Union), declining by around 4 million barrels per day (mb/d), and returning to levels last observed in the 1960s. Broad-based growth in global natural gas demand (up 47%) is led by China and the Middle East. By 2040, oil and coal collectively relinquish 9% of the global energy mix, with renewables growing by five percentage points and gas and nuclear each growing by two. The world’s appetite for electricity lifts demand by more than 70% by 2040, and there is a concerted effort to reduce the environmental consequences of power generation.

Forecast for 2016 Demand for OPEC crude for 2016 remained broadly unchanged from the previous report and is projected to increase by 1.8 mb/d, to average 31.5 mb/d. Within the quarters, 1Q16 and 2Q16 were revised down by 0.2 mb/d and 0.1 mb/d, respectively. This adjustment reflects the combined upward revision in non-OPEC supply and downward revision in demand. 3Q16 was revised up by 0.1 mb/d, while 4Q16 remained unchanged. 1Q16 and 2Q16 are expected to increase by 1.0 mb/d and 1.8 mb/d, respectively, while 3Q16 and 4Q16 are projected to rise by 2.2 mb/d and 2.0 mb/d, respectively. (Source: OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report – April 2016)

About the IEA Founded in 1974, the International Energy Agency was initially designed to help countries co-ordinate a collective response to major disruptions in the supply of oil. While this remains a key aspect of its work, the IEA has evolved and expanded. It is at the heart of global dialogue on energy, providing authoritative statistics and analysis. The IEA examines the full spectrum of energy issues and advocates policies that will enhance the reliability, affordability and sustainability of energy in its 29 member countries and beyond.

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WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

Renewables overtake coal as the largest source of electricity by the early-2030s and account for more than half of all growth over the period to 2040. Renewables-based generation reaches 50% in the European Union by 2040, around 30% in China and Japan, and above 25% in the United States and India. Coal’s share of total electricity generation drops to 30% in 2040, and the output from inefficient sub-critical plants declines by 45%. Around 550 million people in the world remain without any access to electricity in 2040 – the majority of them in sub-Saharan Africa. The oil market is in unfamiliar territory: facing a well-supplied market and lower prices, producers have cut operating costs and investment plans. The absence of an OPEC production cut in response to lower oil prices shifted the onus of finding demand-supply equilibrium onto the broader market. In the New Policies Scenario, oil production grows by 12% from 2014, to over 100 mb/d in 2040, led by non-OPEC countries initially (to around 2020) and OPEC later on. Coal supply grew faster than any other major fuel in the last decade, but is the slowest-growing fuel in the decades to come, with global production increasing by around 10% by 2040. Lower natural gas prices are making it more challenging for those planning long-term investments in new capital-intensive projects. However, world natural gas production is not derailed in the longer term, and reaches nearly 5.2

trillion cubic metres (tcm) by 2040. Energy trade relationships continue to be rewritten, with Asia the final destination for 80% of regionally traded coal, 75% of oil and 60% of natural gas in 2040. China becomes the world’s largest oil importer before 2020 and India the second-largest oil importer around 2035. Middle East oil exports accelerate after 2020 and natural gas exports rebound after 2025. North American natural gas exports are around 85 billion cubic metres (bcm) by 2025 and the region is self-sufficient in oil by the mid2020s. Natural gas imports into the European Union grow by 30%, but sources of supply also diversify. World energy sector investment totals $68 trillion from 2015 to 2040, of which 37% is in oil and gas supply, 29% in power supply and 32% in end-use efficiency. Of the power generation capacity investment in the New Policies Scenario, more than 60% goes to renewables, led by China, the European Union, the United States and India. While often less prominently discussed, energy efficiency investment (led by transport and the buildings sectors) is no less important in scale than other parts of the energy system. Fossil-fuel subsidies were around $490 billion in 2014, but would have been $610 billion without reforms that have been enacted since 2009. Recent changes prove that fossil-fuel subsidy reform is possible: low oil prices give net importers the room to reform, and reinforce the need for exporters to do so. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


THE GREEN EUROPEAN ENERGY UNION Brussels, 25 February 2015. It is time to complete the single energy market in Europe. A top priority set out in President Juncker’s political guidelines which became a strategy set out by the European Commission in order to achieve a resilient Energy Union with a forward-looking climate change policy.

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ENERGY UNION What has been adopted A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a ForwardLooking Climate Change Policy. This sets out, in five interrelated policy dimensions, the goals of an energy union – and the detailed steps the Juncker Commission will take to achieve it, including new legislation to redesign and overhaul the electricity market, ensuring more transparency in gas contracts, substantially developing regional cooperation as an important step towards an integrated market, with a stronger regulated framework, new legislation to ensure the supply for electricity and gas, increased EU funding for energy efficiency or a new renewables energy package, focusing European R&I energy strategy, reporting annually on the ‘State of the Energy Union’, just to name a few. An Interconnection Communication, setting out the measures needed to achieve the target of 10% electricity interconnection by 2020, which is the minimum necessary for the electricity to flow and be traded between Member States. It shows which Member States currently meet the target - and which projects are necessary to close the gap by 2020. A Communication setting out a vision for a global climate agreement in Paris in December. The vision is for a transparent, dynamic and legally binding global agreement with fair and ambitious commitments from all parties. The Communication also translates the decisions taken at the European Summit in October 2014 into the EU’s proposed emissions

WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

reduction target (the so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contribution, or INDC) for the new agreement.

What the Energy Union means The Energy Union means in particular Solidarity clause: reducing the dependence on single suppliers and fully relying on their neighbours, especially when confronted with energy supply disruptions. With more transparency when EU countries make deals to buy energy or gas from countries outside the EU; Energy flows, as if it were a Fifth freedom: that of free flow of energy across borders - strictly enforcing the current rules in areas such as energy unbundling and the independence of regulators – taking legal action if needed. Redesigning the electricity market, to be more interconnected, more renewable, and more responsive. Seriously overhauling state interventions in the internal market, and phasing out environmentally harmful subsidies. Energy efficiency first: fundamentally rethinking energy efficiency and treating it as an energy source in its own right so that it can compete on equal terms with generation capacity;Transition to a low-carbon society that is built to last: ensuring that locally produced energy – including from renewables – can be absorbed easily and efficiently into the grid; promoting EU technological leadership, through developing the next generation of renewables technology and becoming a leader

53% of the EU energy is imported €400 billion, the annual cost for the EU imported energy 12 EU Member States, including Romania, do not meet the EU’s minimum interconnection target – that at least 10% of installed electricity production capacity be able to „cross borders” 137 electricity projects listed by the EU, 35 on electricity interconnection €40 billion a year could be the consumers’ savings if Europe is interconnected 6 EU Member States (Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia) are dependent on one single external supplier for all their gas imports. 75% of our housing stock is energy inefficient 94% of transport relies on oil products, of which 90% is imported Over €1 trillion needs to be invested into the EU energy sector by 2020 alone Wholesale electricity prices in Europe are 30% higher, and wholesale gas prices over 100% higher, than in the US. €129 billion is the combined annual turnover of the European renewable energy businesses, employing over a million people EU greenhouse gas emissions fell 18% in the period 1990-2011. By 2030, the EU aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40%, boost renewable energy by at least 27%, and improve energy efficiency by at least 27%.

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in electromobility, while European companies expand exports and compete globally. In an Energy Union, citizens are at the core. The prices they pay should be affordable and competitive. Energy should be secure and sustainable, with more competition and choice for every consumer. These and other commitments sit alongside an action plan to meet these ambitious goals in our energy and climate policy. Jean-Claude Juncker, Commission President, said: “For too long, energy has been exempt from the fundamental freedoms of our Union. Current events show the stakes – as many Europeans fear they may not have the energy needed to heat their homes. This is about Europe acting together, for the long term. I want the energy that underpins our economy to be resilient, reliable, secure and growingly renewable and sustainable.” WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ENERGY UNION

WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

€5.35 billion for PCIs

Why do we need an Energy Union? The European energy system faces an ever more pressing need to ensure secure, sustainable, affordable and competitive energy for all citizens. Excessive dependence on a limited number of supply sources, especially for natural gas, leaves countries vulnerable to supply disruptions. We must reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and the affordability of energy and the competitiveness of energy prices are of increasing concern to households and businesses. Persistent obstacles to real market integration, uncoordinated national policies and the absence of a common stance vis-à-vis non-EU countries impede progress. The effective response to these challenges is a more cohesive set of measures across policy areas and at EU and national levels. The agreement on

the 2030 Framework for Climate and Energy as well as on the European Energy Security Strategy in 2014 were major steps forward that the Energy Union builds on, but new and strengthened measures are needed to effectively meet the challenges ahead of us. The Framework Strategy for the Energy Union sets the vision for the future and integrates a series of policy areas into one cohesive strategy. It incorporates mutually reinforcing initiatives which – when fully implemented – will ensure that the EU is better placed to meet its challenges based on solidarity and trust between Member States.

What does the Energy Union include? Why were these particular priority areas chosen? The Energy Union is based on the three long-established objectives of

To help create an integrated EU energy market, the European Commission has drawn up a list of 195 key energy infrastructure projects known as projects of common interest (PCIs). These are essential for completing the European internal energy market and for reaching the EU’s energy policy objectives of affordable, secure and sustainable energy. PCIs may benefit from accelerated planning and permit granting, a single national authority for obtaining permits, improved regulatory conditions, lower administrative costs due to streamlined environmental assessment processes, increased public participation via consultations, increased visibility to investors and access to financial support totalling €5.35 billion from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) from 20142020. The funding is intended to speed-up the projects and attract private investors. EU energy policy: security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness. To reach these objectives, the Energy 15


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Union focuses on five mutually supportive dimensions: Energy security, solidarity and trust; the internal energy market; energy efficiency as a contribution to the moderation of energy demand; decarbonisation of the economy;

and research, innovation and competitiveness. All these dimensions are areas that require more integration and coordination. Within these dimensions, the action plan annexed to the framework strategy presents

specific measures that will be prepared and implemented over the next years. This action plan will be followed-up and reviewed as time progresses to ensure that it keeps responding to evolving challenges and new developments.

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competitive, secure and sustainable energy system and to meet its longterm 2050 greenhouse gas reductions target. The strategy sends a strong signal to the market, encouraging private investment in new pipelines, electricity networks, and low-carbon technology. The targets are based on a thorough economic analysis that measures how to cost-effectively achieve decarbonisation by 2050. The cost of meeting the targets does not substantially differ from the price we need to pay anyway to replace our ageing energy system. The main financial effect of decarbonisation will be to shift our spending away from fuel sources and towards low-carbon technologies.

levels by 2050. The Energy Roadmap 2050 explores the transition of the energy system in ways that would be compatible with this greenhouse gas reductions target while also increasing competitiveness and security of supply. To achieve these goals, significant investments need to be made in new lowcarbon technologies, renewable energy, energy efficiency and grid infrastructure. Because investments are made for a period of 20 to 60 years, policies that promote a stable business climate which encourages low-carbon investments must begin to be made today.

By 2020, the EU aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%, increase the share of renewable energy to at least 20% of consumption, and achieve energy savings of 20% or more. All EU countries must also achieve a 10% share of renewable energy in their transport sector. In order to meet the targets, the 2020 Energy Strategy sets out five priorities: 1. Making Europe more energy efficient by accelerating investment into efficient buildings, products, and transport. This includes measures such as energy labelling schemes, renovation of public buildings, and Eco-design requirements for energy intensive products 2. Building a pan-European energy market by constructing the necessary transmission lines, pipelines, LNG terminals, and other infrastructure. Financial schemes may be provided to projects which have trouble obtaining public funding. By 2015, no EU country should be isolated from the internal market 3. Protecting consumer rights and achieving high safety standards in the energy sector. This includes allowing consumers to easily switch energy suppliers, monitor energy usage, and speedily resolve complaints 4. Implementing the Strategic Energy Technology Plan – the EU’s strategy to accelerate the development and deployment of low carbon technologies such as solar power, smart grids, and carbon capture and storage 5. Pursuing good relations with the EU’s external suppliers of energy and energy transit countries. Through the Energy Community, the EU also works to integrate neighbouring countries into its internal energy market

2030 Energy Strategy EU countries have agreed on a new 2030 Framework for climate and energy, including EU-wide targets and policy objectives for the period between 2020 and 2030. These targets aim to help the EU achieve a more 16

Targets for 2030 4 A 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions compared to 1990 levels 4 At least a 27% share of renewable energy consumption 4 At least 27% energy savings compared with the business-as-usual scenario Policies for 2030 4 To meet the targets, the European Commission has proposed: A reformed EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) 4 New indicators for the competitiveness and security of the energy system, such as price differences with major trading partners, diversification of supply, and interconnection capacity between EU countries 4 First ideas on a new governance system based on national plans for competitive, secure, and sustainable energy. These plans will follow a common EU approach. They will ensure stronger investor certainty, greater transparency, enhanced policy coherence and improved coordination across the EU.

2050 Energy strategy The EU has set itself a long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% when compared to 1990

Energy Roadmap The European Commission’s 2011 Energy Roadmap set out four main routes to a more sustainable, competitive and secure energy system in 2050: energy efficiency, renewable energy, nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage. It combined these routes in different ways to create and analyse seven possible scenarios for 2050. Conclusions of the analysis: Decarbonising the energy system is technically and economically feasible. In the long-run, all scenarios that achieve the emissions reduction target are cheaper than the continuation of current policies. Increasing the share of renewable energy and using energy more efficiently are crucial irrespective of the particular energy mix chosen. Early infrastructure investments cost less and much of the infrastructure in the EU built 30 to 40 years ago needs to be replaced anyway. Immediately replacing it with low-carbon alternatives can avoid more costly changes in the future. According to the International Energy Agency, investments in the power sector made after 2020 would cost 4.3 times as much as those made before 2020. A European approach is expected to result in lower costs and more secure energy supplies when compared to individual national schemes. With a common energy market, energy can be produced where it is cheapest and delivered to where it is needed. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDITORIAL

ROMANIA IS LOOKING FOR ITS WAY One of the major challenges for the European Union refers to the way in which it can ensure energy security with competitive and “clean� energy, by limiting the impact of climate change and coping with the escalating global demand for energy and with the uncertain future of access to energy resources, said the representatives of Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE). In Romania, the Ministry of Energy has assumed to conceive a new national Energy Strategy by the end of this autumn. 17


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The third energy package provides for the establishment of a harmonized legal framework at European level. Thanks to the efforts of cooperation at European level made by the national administrations, the regulatory authorities in the field of energy under the auspices of the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (“ACER”) and the network operators associated in the European networks of gas and electricity transmission system operators (“ENTSO”), this framework is under implementation. Due to the rigorous application of the provisions of the third energy package, including rules concerning the separation and the norms that require devising network development plans for 10 years, there is now a climate of investment that ensures the construction of the most necessary lines. The integration of the energy market in the single European market and the harmonization of the national regulatory framework with the European one represent two major objectives of our country. ANRE is developing the regulations system in order to meet both the requirements imposed by the liberalization of the energy markets and the requirements of establishing a predictable regulatory framework, in order to attract investment in the sector and to ensure continuity in the supply of safe and affordable energy. The implementation of the third legislative package constitutes an important element for the development of an integrated energy market, Romania being fully engaged in the process of carrying it out successfully. In order to achieve the target proposed by the European Council, namely the realization of the single energy and natural gas markets, some concrete steps have been proposed regarding the coupling of next day markets, the allocation of interconnection capacities and the development of intraday markets. Thus, the European Commission has adopted the communication “Priorities of the energy infrastructure pre- and post2020”, a document which proposes the European Union’s vision on the development of the European energy infrastructure for the next two decades. In the document “Priorities for the development of the energy infrastructure for the year 2020 18

- a roadmap towards creating an integrated energy network”, the Commission proposes the establishment of priority corridors for the transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil. The objective of the initiative lies in the strengthening of regional cooperation in Europe in the field of energy network development and integration, the diversification of sources and routes to enhance supply security and the promotion of market development. To implement this initiative, high-level groups have been established, whose activity has led to proposing action plans for the development of natural gas, electricity and crude oil network interconnections. For each domain covered by the action plan - natural gas, electricity and crude oil - there have been set up working groups with the aim of addressing the technical and regulatory aspects. The European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators ACER, established on the basis of the provisions of Regulation 2009/713/ EC, has a central role in supporting cooperation between the regulatory authorities, in the drawing up of Network Codes at EU level on the basis of the framework guidelines critical documents for an integrated European energy market - and in supervising the activity of transport and system operators in the fields of electricity and gas. As a result of the work carried out by ACER and the national regulatory authorities of the Member States, an important part of Network Codes required by Regulations 714/2009/EC and 2009/715/EC have been prepared and submitted to the European Commission. By the end of 2015, in the electricity sector, the Network Code regulating the management of congestions and the allocation of interconnection capacities had been approved, and the Network Codes relating to connecting producers, connecting consumers, connecting the direct current lines of high voltage and the one governing the forward allocation of capacities were in the process of ratification. The Network Code governing the operation of the electro-energetic power system and the one regulating the frequency-power adjustment and the power reserve are undergoing the process of comitology. In the natural gas sector, the following documents have been approved by the European Commission: the Network Code

concerning capacity allocation and congestion management, the Network Code regarding the balancing of the natural gas transport systems and the Network Code governing interoperability.

A big challenge: a Romanian Energy Strategy Romania’s Energy Strategy returns like a leitmotiv in the discourse of Victor Grigorescu, the Ministry of Energy, who has assumed this task as a priority of his mandate. According to the Romanian official, this strategy will have been drawn up by the fall of 2016 and will include the strategic directions to be followed by 2020-2030, with a projection towards 2050. So far the analysis of the energy sector has been updated, the calendar for devising the strategy has been set up, informative meetings have been held with various ambassadors or the representatives of non-governmental organizations and trade unions, working sessions have been held at the sectoral level, without any delay. The current strategy has no longer been consistent with the realities WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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of the energy sector for several years now, both in terms of the changes on the domestic market and as regards the new directions imposed by the European Union, whose Member State Romania has been since 2007. “The energy strategy will provide a sustainable development vision for the country, which will include Romania’s evolution towards assuming the role of a regional hub for energy production, storage and trading; centring on energy consumers as the main beneficiaries of the diversified energy sources and services; developing the energy infrastructure in conjunction with the introduction of smart technologies; ensuring the transparency and professionalization of energy governance. The strategy will include an inbuilt revising and updating mechanism, so as to be at all times a living and relevant document”, as stated in the message delivered by the Ministry of Energy with respect to the objective of the new energy strategy. The first step in devising the new strategies has been to update the Analysis of the Energy Sector, a document drawn up, in the first phase, in 2014. “I appreciate the

consultation effort in devising this new Energy Strategy of Romania. A lot of progress has been made since the 2014 document, the original document. There is no doubt that this area of European or international energy policy is better reflected. There are important topics that appear in this new qualitative analysis regarding the development of energy licence programmes”, as Mihnea Constantinescu, Special Representative of the Romanian Government for Energy Security, said.

What does the up-todate analysis contain? The Analysis of the current state, drafted by the team appointed by the Ministry of Energy for elaborating Romania’s Energy Strategy, describes in the introduction the international energy context of marketing in which Romania has evolved, for example the impact of the collapse of the oil barrel price, what the States participating in the COP21 Summit in Paris undertook in order to reduce carbon emissions, responsible for climate change and global warming,

the European policies in the energy field which culminated in tracing the lines of action also contained in the Energy Union Strategic Framework of 2015 (COM (2015) 80 final, 25. 02. 2015): energy security, solidarity and trust; a fully integrated European energy market; energy efficiency, contributing to the moderation of demand; decarbonising the economy; research, innovation and competitiveness. The national context is analysed in the following lines, where it is specified that: “The Romanian energy sector seems to be traversing an auspicious period: dependence on natural gas imports decreased in 2015 to less than 5%, after having been, five years earlier, 24%; the wholesale price of electricity and natural gas is the lowest in the EU, according to Eurostat 6 data (2015), and fuel prices have been appreciably cheaper at the pump, amid the collapse in international equity prices for a barrel of crude oil. The structure of primary energy consumption is diversified and balanced, making Romania a regional exception and, at European level, the least dependent country on energy imports per capita (Eurostat 2015). However, an in-depth analysis reveals a number of serious problems. The reduction of natural gas imports was, above all, the effect of a decrease in domestic demand notably given the closure of various industrial capacities, but also of mild winters and energy efficiency measures. The rate of consumption decrease has been maintained, in recent years, above the oil and gas production decline rate. As shown in Chapter 3 (A synthetic approach to the energy mix), the national consumption of primary energy has consistently decreased from 2008 to 2014, from 39,799 thousand tons of oil equivalent (toe) to 31,538 toe, i.e. by more than 20%. Primary energy production has also decreased from 2008 to 2013, undergoing a slight recovery from 25,853 thousand toe in 2013 to 26,313 in 2014. The largest share in primary energy production is that of gases, with 33%, followed by coal (18%), crude oil (15%) and firewood and agricultural wastes (14%). In fact, the decline in natural gas production has been diminished thanks to investments in increasing the degree of recovery made by two big domestic producers, OMV Petrom and Romgaz. Still, since the latter half of 2014, the collapse in oil 19


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prices has increasingly reduced the hydrocarbon producers’ ability to invest in the replacement of reserves and in maintaining the level of production”. The analysis of the current context of Romanian energy also signals the problem of the insolvency of various State companies that produce electricity, in the hydro and coal sectors -the Hunedoara Energy Complex and Hidroelectrica SA, or the Oltenia Energy Complex, which will have the same economic fate without a restructuring and reorganization strategy, or the problem of the production of electricity and/or thermal power from renewable sources, which has seen a decline in the area of investments in new production capacities due to the crisis of the support scheme based on green certificates, the problem of the thermal power sector, whose inefficiencies are caused by the high costs of operating the facilities that have, for the most part, exceeded the normal life span and whose technical and economic performances are very low. Energy losses at the level of buildings are almost three times higher than the European average, as it is also shown in the document. The rhetoric of transforming Romania into a regional energy hub remains devoid of content, the authors also state. “On the one hand, the past decade has seen few successes of the infrastructure projects. The energy infrastructure is, on decisive segments, out-dated and outworn, needing urgent investments. Electricity production exceeds domestic consumption, but the export capacity remains limited; the efficiency of the electricity and gas transmission system is affected by the diminishing volumes of domestic energy transmitted but, at the same time, these systems do not provide sufficient capacity along the new axes resulting from the evolution of the production capacity over the past few years”, as it is emphasized in the analysis. The authors have also identified the lack of real competition on the area of production and supply, although, in theory, this is a free and almost entirely liberalized energy market. “The end user still has a passive role and when he is vulnerable, he is assisted through inefficient mechanisms. An exception is that of electricity for residential consumers, 20

where the price is the second cheapest after the price in Bulgaria, and of natural gas for industrial consumers, where the price is the second cheapest after the one in Belgium”, the authors show in their report. Romania’s Energy Strategy, with a package of measures designed until 2030 and with 2050 in perspective, can solve these problems reported in the energy sector. “Based on the solid tradition of our country in the energy sector and starting from a diverse range of natural resources, from a favourable geographical location, from a (still) high human capital and from the opportunities offered by the new technologies, our country can develop a competitive energy system, with high quality energy services, accessible to citizens both physically and financially; a resilient energy system in the face of external

shocks, adapted to the increasingly sophisticated requirements of the consumers; an energy system fit to generate growth, jobs and economic activity horizontally; finally, an energy system with low emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants, in which GDP growth will be disengaged from the growing demand for energy”, the authors who have analysed the current energy context conclude.

What objectives does the strategy propose? The fundamental strategic objectives that will be pursued, largely circumscribed to the European energy strategy, are energy security, the competitiveness of energy markets, economic competitiveness and ecological and climatic sustainability, while the operational WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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objectives include maintaining a diversified and balanced energy mix, decarbonizing the energy system through competitive market mechanisms, the development of investments in the energy sector for economic efficiency and decarbonization, interconnection and integration on regional energy markets, the protection of vulnerable consumers and energy poverty diminution, the improvement of the quality of energy governance and the strengthening of the country’s institutional and administrative capacity in the energy sector, and Romania’s becoming a regional energy pole. The document itself is composed of two parts (the first part being devoted to the analysis of the current state), which we will present briefly in each chapter. The second part deals with the national and international commitments Romania has assumed.

quantitative analysis and modelling of data on the national power system, developing relevant scenarios of possible evolution within the Debates Strategy’s time horizon: 2016-2030, from the perspective of the year on the sectorial level 2050”, as it is stated in the analysis of the energy sector. The second step in the Three scenarios elaboration of the will be taken into strategy was the account, namely qualitative analysis the Reference of the energy scenario, built on sector, which the assumption began on 29 of maintaining February and the current legal ended on 15 April and regulatory this year. This framework, analysis involved including the current the organization of targets for 2020; the working sessions on maximal 2030 Policies the sectoral level scenario, based on crude oil, petroleum the assumption of the products and natural binding nature of the gas, electric power, commitments at the energy efficiency, national level of all the cogeneration and targets set out in the energy demand European framework management, energy of energy and governance and environment policies security and energy The European for 2030, including diplomacy. All the reports generated as a trend is to achieve the indicative targets: a 40% reduction result of the working an ambitious in emissions of sessions will be goal in 2050, greenhouse gases, contained in the final namely to ensure a share of at least report that is yet to 27% of the energy be published. 80% of energy On the basis of the consumption from mix for renewable energy sources and final report, “with the clean energies. the increase by at help of a consultant least 27% of energy of international efficiency; the scenario Policies renown, a detailed study will 2030, based on assuming the EU be conducted, undertaking the

energy and environment targets for 2030, with the mandatory goal of GHS emission reduction by 40% and with Romania’s participation in the collective effort of the Member States to achieve the targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

How do producers see this strategy? Many players on the Romanian market have high hopes in the future of Romania’s Energy Strategy; others are neutral, even inclining toward scepticism, given their negative experiences with this document in the past. “We are also part of the process of strategy elaboration, so we should postpone our comments for the time being. Still, we want to reassure you that there is a constant and continuous communication between Romgaz and the Ministry of Energy, in various fields, including on the topic of the Energy Strategy. This communication is not limited to formal strategy-related debates. The purpose of these debates is to outline the strategy, which must then be discussed on the merits and as a whole”, as Virgil Marius Metea, General Manager of the Romgaz National Natural Gas Company, the most important Romanian gas producer, believes. In coal sector, the strategy needs to approach the problem of reorganization of coal plants. “The reorganization of state-owned producers is a prerequisite not only 21


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for the future of CE Oltenia, but also for the safety of the National Energy System. The environmental projects implemented by CE Oltenia prove that de-pollution is possible through technology and not by shutting down the classical producers, with numerous implications: from social issues to the stability of energy systems”, believes Laurentiu Ciobotarica, Finance Division Director of The Oltenia Energy Complex. The management of Nuclearelectrica National Company, a company that provides nearly 20% of the electricity

Monsson Group believes, through its representatives, that this strategy can save the green energy sector, where 40% of producers are on the verge of bankruptcy. “At stake are 7 billion euros, over 25,000 jobs, an installed capacity in renewable energy that is higher than the one in the nuclear sector. I think interest is lacking”, Sebastian Enache, business development manager, Monsson Group, emphasizes. He has also criticised the lack of predictability in the field of renewables. In any case, the European trend is to

produced in Romania, wants the document to create the framework for a purely managerial activism. “A long-term vision because we need to know by now how and where we want to get, realism in setting goals and achieving targets, in conjunction with the concrete needs of the system and of the consumers, a proper and functional regulatory framework that allows the companies in the field to develop, fair treatment for all sources, the removal of subsidies for certain energy sources that produce imbalances on the market. In short, from the point of view of a manager: I want to be able to replace activism that advocates change with purely managerial activism, which involves action for growth in a functional framework”, says, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica National Company. Player in the field of renewables,

achieve an ambitious goal in 2050, namely to ensure 80% of energy consumption from clean energies.

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What should the energy mix look like? The Ministry of Energy believes that Romania’s energy mix is diverse and balanced, reflecting the country’s diverse base of natural resources and the development, in time, of an energy system, based on a multitude of production sources. While the free market limits the ability of the State to shape the energy mix, energy security imperatives justify the government’s intervention through policies and mechanisms that support investments in the strategic capabilities of energy production, even if the State assumes the role of an investor. At the same time, the State is interested in maintaining

a high level of know-how in all the energy subsectors from Romania. “In the long term, the energy mix may be a solution that can ensure stability and security on the energy market. Of course it depends on the energy strategy. The energy mix should be correlated with it and supported by coherent social policies until the market is stabilized”, as Virgil Marius Metea shows. Also producers want fairness in this regard. “An optimal, sure energy mix is a balanced and diversified mix. Even taking into account the European energy policy of decarbonization and, implicitly, the emphasis on renewables, it is unrealistic to think that a single source can meet all the needs of the energy system and of the consumer. So, even in the context of a change of paradigm, a balanced mix is necessary. Romania has the resources for such a mix and it is important to use them all, equitably, as long as we have them, in order to: 1. ensure the domestic needs, 2. maintain the sustainability of the consumer price, 3. increase long-term producers by valorizing production on other markets. We all love the idea of a regional hub, but we have to move past the theory”, as Daniela Lulache, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica National Company, believes. “We should mention the fact that in no other country is there the version of energy producers restricted to a single resource, as in the case of Romania. In all European countries, the big companies are producing electricity as an energy mix. CE Oltenia sustains the need to create an efficient energy mix, entailing a reorganization of the producers on the model of EU companies: EDF, ENEL, CEZ, EON, RWE because, in the current organization, there is no real market competition”, underlines Laurentiu Ciobotarica. The consumer is the main link of this chain; the consumer must have quality, permanent energy, according to Sebastian Enache, Business Development Manager of the Monsson Group. “Renewable sources of energy operate in segmented manner and, therefore, they must function together with other energy sources. In Romania we are very lucky to have hydro -30%, nuclear, thermal, gas and green energy. I consider that all sources of energy are important, all of them can work in parallel WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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Victor Vlad Grigorescu, Romanian Minister of Energy

and at the same time, it all depends on us and on adjusting the system and on assuming, as a country, the strategy for decarbonization. Decarbonization means less CO2. We must see what sources produce CO2, separately for the duration of their life span and when their turn comes to be shut down, and instead of investing tens of millions and perhaps hundreds of millions to maintain the polluting units, we will be able to use several million to support the production of energy from renewable sources. The calculations are economic and everything is related to the national energy strategy”, Sebastian Enache also shows. An interesting approach on this matter has Martin Zmelik, CEO CEZ Romania, who heads the Czech company that operates the Romanian largest wind park in Romania, Fântânele-Cogealac, an investment affected by the failure to grant green certificates for the entire capacity. “Romania has a great energy potential from this point of view. A clear production mix counts among our expectations from the national energy strategy. As we speak, the whole system is unbalanced and the legislation and framework need to be changed. 2016 is the last year of qualification of the new producers for the support scheme for GCs.

We believe everyone is needed. For example, we have witnessed consumption peaks of 9500 MW this winter. However, the balance of the parties involved needs to be established through the energy strategy which will indicate the right production mix for the country. In our view, handling the situation means respecting the EU directive, on one hand, but also ensurring the stability of the supply of electricity throughout the whole year, on the other”, says Zmelik.

Export or reindustrialization? We are talking a lot about an interconnected Europe, which means exports inclusive. Is a good idea to export or to encourage domestic consumption, was another question addressed to producers. “Rising domestic consumption means economic growth. Obviously, it is desirable to achieve added value in the country and to export only the surplus. On the other hand, people are talking more and more about energy efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources (which has already happened), and these are concepts which, in some way, are opposed to the use of traditional sources.

In fact, things have to co-exist, to harmonize themselves, to maintain a stable balance - and this is a universally valid principle”, emphasizes the General Manager of Romgaz SA, Virgil Marius Metea. Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica maintain their intention to export electricity. “Romania has a production overcapacity that it must be able to capitalize on. Every producer in Romania should be able to capitalize on every opportunity in Romania, as long as any producer in Europe can capitalize on the opportunities that appear in Romania. In such a situation, interconnections are inevitable, they work, enhancing the exchange capabilities, and that is why Hidroelectrica’s position vis-à-vis exports is unchanged. Hidroelectrica wants to exploit every opportunity on the market, on a free market in the neighbouring countries or in the rest of Europe. We cannot afford becoming anachronistic, going back to 10 years ago, when everybody capitalized on what they had, in an enclosed space”, emphasizes Ovidiu Agliceru, General Manager of Hidroelectrica. “As long as production capacities at the national level ensure the domestic consumption demand, I do not see why we should not capitalize on production through exports. Energy producers, beyond their strategic 23


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position at the national level and their corresponding responsibility, are economic actors who must develop. Reindustrialization is also a necessity, not just for increasing consumption, but for many other social and economic considerations. Attracting investors or raising the level of investor attraction currently depends on certain legislative and tax changes, and increased levels of confidence come only after these changes, in time. Until we reach the stage in which we are already in a new stage of reindustrialization, either through domestic initiatives or by attracting investors, we need to use what we have or what we can have in the short term. All these measures are necessary. Encouraging domestic consumption through development and exports are variations on a very complex development plan. The development of Romanian companies is a necessity; but that can be obtained only by allowing them to act freely, making available to them the same instruments their foreign competitors have access to. It is a pity, to say the least, to have the resources that Romania has, and yet to limit yourself”, believes Daniela Lulache. 24

Romania – regional hub? In the European Union there is envisaged a future Energy Union that will take into account aspects such as the diversification of external supply sources, the modernization of the energy infrastructure, the completion of the EU’s internal energy market and energy savings. We are ready, so is it possible for Romania not to become an outlet for the energy produced in other European countries, to become, in other words, a hub on regional electricity market? This is a question we have asked the Romanian players in the energy sector. “Romania can become a regional hub if it approaches more flexibly certain legislative aspects and invests in projects that will ensure, in the medium and long term, a strong position in the region,” says Daniela Lulache, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica. The manager believes that even if the energy market is unified at the European level and if the interconnection projects are carried through, we can still discuss about Romania’s independence in the energy sector.

“But above all we can discuss about the role that Romania could play in this context. To what extent and how we want to capitalize on what we have, ensuring first our needs and the comfort of consumers in Romania, and only then looking at the advantages at a regional level”, she concluded. Also, the Finance Division Director of The Oltenia Energy Complex agrees that Romania has its chance on the regional market. “Romania has the potential to become a major regional energy centre (in the South-Eastern area of Europe) and we support the idea of Romania’s becoming a net exporter of electrical power. In this case, the investments made by conventional energy producers make sense in the long run, with direct implications on the social level”, declared Laurentiu Ciobotarica. But the debate about Romania’s Energy Strategy is more complex, and will find hopefully answers this fall. The development of Romania’s Energy Strategy will be completed by 15 September, when the document will be subject to the approval of the Government and Parliament. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


REGULATION

THE ANRE LEADERSHIP AIMS FOR A CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT OF ITS REGULATORY ACTIVITY IN 2016 The National Regulatory Authority in the field of Energy, hereinafter called ANRE, is an autonomous administrative authority with legal personality, under parliamentary control, financed entirely from its own incomes, independent from the decision-making, organizational and functional point of view, and having as its main activity the development, approval and monitoring of the application of mandatory rules and regulations at the national level required for the operation of the electricity, heat and gas sectors and markets, under conditions of efficiency transparency, competition, and consumer protection. What is the liberalization stage of the electricity and natural gas markets, what interconnection projects are being developed and what are the future directions? These are just some of the questions that the ANRE leaders, Chairman Niculae Havrileț and Vice-Chairman Emil Calotă, through the Communication Directorate, have answered. Other extensive information is inserted in the other chapters of the yearbook.

The National Regulatory Authority in the field of Energy, hereinafter called ANRE, is an autonomous administrative authority with legal personality, under parliamentary control, financed entirely from its own incomes, independent from the decision-making, organizational and functional point of view, and having as its main activity the development, approval and monitoring of the application of mandatory rules and regulations at the national level required for the operation of the electricity, heat and gas sectors and markets, under conditions of efficiency transparency, competition, and consumer protection. What is the liberalization stage of the electricity and natural gas markets, what interconnection projects are being developed and what are the future directions? These are just some of the questions that the ANRE leaders, Chairman Niculae Havrileț and Vice-Chairman Emil Calotă, through the Communication Directorate, have answered. Other extensive information is inserted in the other chapters of the yearbook.

I. The liberalization of the electricity and natural gas markets /the gas stock exchange The total liberalization of the electricity and natural gas markets has been the reference point in

the evolution of the European energy market, being considered the event of the year 2007 in this field. With effect from 1 July 2007, the last 14 Member States, including Romania, have opened their electricity and natural gas markets for competition. We can therefore say that the opening of the electricity and natural gas markets has already been achieved in Romania, since the entry into force of Government Resolution no. 638/20.06.2007, which implemented the legal framework that allows all consumers, regardless of the nature of consumption (residential or non-residential), to use the right of eligibility. That is to say, consumers are able to choose, for their place of use, the type of supply contract (regulated or negotiated) and, depending on this, the supplier of electricity and/or natural gas. At the same time, it should be noted that, in order to comply with the EU legislation transposed into national law, the deregulation of tariffs with residential or nonresidential consumers is the way to ensure the real opening of the electricity market until its complete liberalization. This involves providing access to a growing number of participants to the market, such as producers, network operators, suppliers and consumers of electricity. This constitutes a favourable environment for the

promotion of competition as a solution for price setting and for the supply quality services. Thus, the liberalization process of the electricity and natural gas markets for non-residential consumers ended with the completion of the implementation phases of the calendar for the abolition of regulated prices for this category of clients, as of 1 January 2014 for the non-residential electricity customers and as of 1 January 2015 for non-residential natural gas customers. As regards residential customers, according to the timetable in place, the process of removing regulated prices for residential electricity customers, which started in July 2013, is envisaged to be completed at the end of 2017. In the field of natural gas, the Government of Romania has undertaken, together with ANRE, to draw up a new timetable for the removal of regulated prices over the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2021, which should take into account the decreasing trend of the oil price evolution in the region, as well as the longer period of alignment approved by the international financial institutions. Thus, in the period July 2014-March 2015, during talks with the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and the World Bank, regarding the development and 25


REGULATION implementation of a new roadmap (Calendar) for the natural gas sector, the Romanian party advocated the following ideas: - considering the process of the full deregulation of gas prices for nonresidential customers, Romania has shown determination in continuing and completing the liberalization of the gas market; - the process of deregulation for residential customers has been extended until 30 June 2021, according to the provisions stipulated in the Law on energy and natural gas, no. 123/2012, as subsequently amended and supplemented; - it is necessary to reconsider the former approved Calendar, taking into account the new situation, given the current economic and social situation and also the estimates relating to the price of natural gas, in line with the new trends offered by estimates concerning the price of oil on international markets; - the proposal to implement the new calendar from 1 July 2015 was based on the need to carry out, on the one hand, a gas market analysis to substantiate the new liberalization calendar and, on the other hand, to identify the vulnerable consumers precisely so that, in parallel with the new liberalization calendar, a transparent methodology of providing direct subsidies to the vulnerable customers could be implemented; - taking into account the fact that the centralized natural gas markets in Romania will acquire a strong relevance in determining the price of gas on the basis of transparent and non-discriminatory competition, it was considered necessary to develop and implement the new calendar in correlation with this price on the centralized market, in order to avoid the risk of having a document that containing prices which exceed the liberalized market price and affect the price generated by competition on the market. The competition represents an incentive for companies, encouraging them to act at their fullest potential for delivering quality and affordable services. On a competitive market, companies will compete with each other to expand the area of their customers and will react quickly and flexibly to changes in the structure of demand. At the same time, competition 26

boosts entrepreneurship, rewarding efficient companies and punishing inefficient ones. Since 2007, the year of Romania’s accession to the European Union, the process of liberalization has been consistent with the rate of market maturation, with the social protection measures pursued and with the ample and intense process of involvement in the general efforts devoted to integration into a European single market, an integration which, according to the political statements at national and European level, remains of paramount importance. Through the market model implemented in Romania in the context of the takeover, at the national level, of the acquis communautaire elements in the domain of energy (electricity and natural gas), starting with the directives concerning the common market opening rules, the aim has been to ensure the conditions that allow all categories of participants in the market to develop sustainable and effective business strategies, in other words, that allow the achievement of benefices throughout the chain of productiontransport-distribution-delivery, under conditions of integrity and transparency, so that the end user, the consumer, can benefit from reasonable prices as a result of the fair competition on the market. The liberalized market presents a number of advantages derived from the promotion of competition as the solution for price setting and for the quality of supply services. The right to choose one’s supplier of electricity and natural gas is one of the main advantages that the liberalization of competition brings to consumers, as they can negotiate directly with the suppliers the terms and conditions for the provision of the service of electricity/natural gas supply, including: prices, payment modalities, quality of service, etc. Along with the opening of the energy markets towards competition, the legal framework was implemented to allow the consumers of electricity/natural gas to use the right of eligibility, in the sense of choosing the desired service provider and entering contracts with that provider for the supply of electricity to their place or places of consumption. According to the existing legal framework, residential consumers can conclude

negotiated supply contracts with operator licensed to supply electricity/gas, by negotiating with the latter the price and terms of the supply contract. To be able to make the right choice, residential consumers must check the list of electricity/natural gas suppliers for the purpose of requesting offers, and after getting them it is recommended that they should make a comparative analysis of the information contained in these offers, such as those relating to the price, the duration of the contract, conditions and methods of payment, the guarantee of contractual clauses concerning rights and obligations, including penalty clauses, the conditions under which the parties may renegotiate the terms of the contract, the conditions for termination of the contract, the clauses which may take effect also after the termination of the contract, etc. In the long term, the possibility of a change in the supplier of electricity and natural gas represents an obvious advantage for the entire energy market, and with the correct and constant flow of information to the consumers, the market will be able to mature into a transparent and competitive medium, with benefices for all the actors. In 2013, licenses were granted for the administration of the centralized markets to the operators the Romanian Commodities Exchange - BRM and, respectively, to the “OPCOM” – S.A. Electricity and Natural Gas Market Operator. The regulations issued on the organized framework of trading on the centralized natural gas markets pertaining to the two operators of centralized markets have suffered changes and additions, amid developments affecting the primary national legislation and amid the diversification of the products and trading platforms made available by the operators of the centralized natural gas markets. Among the developments regarding the diversification of products and trading platforms made available to the market by the operators of centralized natural gas markets, we should highlight the following: 4 the launching, by the Romanian Commodities Exchange, of the STEG (BRM) Electronic Trading Platform, this representing an electronic trading platform WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


REGULATION

Niculae Havrilet, President of ANRE

that supplements the already existing one, which functions in parallel with it. The new system is dedicated exclusively to natural gas transactions in the short, medium and long term among economic operators who hold licenses for the supply of natural gas and has a different functional structure from the existing platform, as well as several novelty items. 4 creating the conditions for trading products with a delivery period of less than one month and facilitating access to trading on the centralized market administered by the Romanian Commodities Exchange, by removing the requirements for the submission of guarantees of participation in the auction sessions by the participants in the centralized natural gas market and by introducing the concept of a whitelist. 4 expanding the coverage of the concept of “centralized market participant” to also include wholesale customers, the end customers of natural gas and economic operators in the natural gas sector who purchase natural gas, offering these categories of participants the possibility to

conclude transactions for the purchase of natural gas on the centralized natural gas market administered by the “OPCOM” – S.A. Electricity and Natural Gas Market Operator 4 creating the possibility that, on the centralized natural gas market administered by the “OPCOM” – S.A. Electricity and Natural Gas Market Operator, the bilateral agreements proposed by the initiators of the trading sessions, in accordance with their technical, economic and commercial requirements, can be subject to trading in a centralized, transparent and non-discriminatory manner, using the public auction mechanisms.

II.The projects for the development and investment in transport networks The (EC) Regulation no. 714/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, issued on 13 July 2009, regarding the conditions for access to the network for cross-border electricity exchanges provides for

the establishment of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) through the cooperation of the European transport and system operators, a body that, in order to achieve a unitary vision on the development of the European RET, elaborates the 10-year Network Development Plan at community level. According to the European and national legislation, transmission and system operators are required to draw up 10-year investment and development plans for the electricity transmission network, in line with the current state and the future evolution of energy consumption and sources, including imports and exports of energy, and the duties of ANRE in this domain relate to the approval and monitoring of these plans. The community plan is based on the regional and national plans for the development of RET and the 10-year Plan for the development of the power transmission grid (RET), drafted by CN Transelectrica SA and approved by ANRE, contributes to establishing the necessary investments for meeting the 27


REGULATION technical requirements imposed by the interconnected operation of SEN with the ENTSO-E network and to ensuring the interconnected functioning, under safety conditions, of the National Electroenergetic System with the electroenergetic systems of Europe. The internal scenarios analysed within the framework of the National RET Development Plan have been correlated with the scenarios developed at the European and regional levels within ENTSO-E. The European plan ENTSO-E includes projects of European interest, some of which have the status of PCI, with greater impact on the system, while regional plans also include projects whose interest is only regional and national plans include projects with a lesser impact on the other systems, but necessary at the national level. The Plan for the development of the power transmission grid (RET) is a document which presents the main issues concerning the current situation and the expected development of the RET in the context of SEN for the next ten years. The planning of power grid development (RET) has the following objectives: a). the safe operation of SEN and the transport of electricity at quality levels corresponding to the standardized conditions; b). the development of the RET so as to be properly sized for transporting the electricity estimated to be produced, consumed, imported, exported and transited; c). ensuring the transportation infrastructure necessary for the proper functioning of the electricity market; d). ensuring the applicants’ access to the public interest network, under the rules in force; e). minimizing the costs of investment in choosing the RET development solutions. The development plan of the power transmission grid is made by CNTEE Transelectrica SA available to all interested parties in order to facilitate: 4 obtaining information about the current and prospective capability of the transport network, so as to meet the demands of the users and the public interest, in light of the objectives of the national energy strategy and policy and the legislation in force; 4 creating the conditions for 28

correlating, between OTS and the market participants, in the medium- and long-term, the actions/ investments that may have an impact on the safety performance of SEN; 4 obtaining information regarding the zonal opportunities for connection to and usage of RET, according to the forecasts regarding the evolution of consumption and production capacities; 4 obtaining information on the evolution of the capacities for energy exchange with the neighbouring systems in the context of the internal European electricity market; 4 the level of reserves in SEN so as to ensure meeting the demand with the production and transmission of electricity at peak consumption; - the resource requirements for the development of RET and their source. The (EU) Regulation no. 347/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the guidelines for the trans-European energy infrastructure, proposes a set of measures for achieving the objectives of the EU in this field, such as: the integration and functioning of the internal energy market, ensuring the energy security of the EU, the promotion and development of energy efficiency and renewable energy and the promotion of the interconnection of energy networks. The (EU) Regulation no. 347/2013 has identified, for the period 2020 and after, a number of 12 priority trans-European corridors and domains that cover the electricity and gas networks, as well as the petroleum and carbon dioxide transport infrastructure. Regarding electricity, Romania is part of priority corridor no. 3: “NorthSouth interconnections relating to electricity in Central Europe and South-East Europe” (“NSI East Electricity”): interconnections and internal lines along the NorthSouth and East-West directions for the completion of the internal market and for the integration of the production coming from renewable sources. Member States concerned: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Slovakia. Also, the approval and monitoring of the Plan for the development of the natural gas transport system during the period 2014-2023, which presents the directions of

development for the Romanian natural gas transport network and the major projects that SNTGN Transgaz SA intends to implement in the next 10 years. The Development Plan meets the requirements of the European energy policy regarding: • ensuring safety in the supply of natural gas; • increasing the degree of interconnection of the national natural gas transport network to the European network; • increasing the flexibility of the national natural gas transport network; • the liberalization of the natural gas market; • creating an integrated natural gas market at the European Union level. The plans for the development of the transport infrastructure over the next period are as follows: 4 Completing the RomaniaBulgaria interconnection plan and ensuring the two-way flow of natural gas at the Giurgiu-Ruse interconnection point, estimated to be accomplished by the end of 2016; 4 Interconnecting the natural gas transit system with the national system of natural gas transmission and ensuring the two-way flow (reverse flow) at the Isaccea I interconnection point, estimated to be completed in 2016; 4 Creating an access corridor between the off-shore exploitations from the Black Sea and SNTGN; 4 Developing the export capabilities at the HungaryRomania interconnection point up to a capacity of 1.75 billion cubic metres/year at a pressure of 40 bars. The project is of common interest, being an integral part of a larger project, the “Development of the national transportation system on the territory of Romania”, estimated to be completed in 2019; 4 The appropriateness of interlinking with the TAP project (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) - a project aimed at transporting natural gas from the Caspian Sea (Azerbaijan), the pipeline starting from Greece and passing through Albania and the Adriatic Sea toward Italy and, farther, towards Western Europe. Among the most important investments made in recent years in the field of energy are the following: • the development of the capacities for interconnecting the national WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


REGULATION

Emil Calota, Vice President of ANRE

system of natural gas transportation with the neighbouring States; • the interconnection of Romania with Moldova; the Ungheni-Iasi gas pipeline was inaugurated on 27 August 2014, all the phases of this project being completed; • ensuring the flow of natural gas in both directions at the interconnection point with Hungary, thereby facilitating the export of natural gas; • the development of the storage capacity through the investments made at Bălăceanca, Urziceni and Sărmășel; • the oil and natural gas explorations in the Black Sea; In the context in which Europe is becoming increasingly dependent on imports of natural gas, access to new sources is turning into an imperative necessity. Studies and assessments conducted so far have shown significant deposits of natural gas in the Black Sea. Under these conditions, the development, on the Romanian territory, of an infrastructure for the transport natural gas from the Black Sea coast up to the RomaniaHungary border is one of the major priorities.

By ensuring the link between different sources of natural gas supply and the European market, the above-mentioned investment projects contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the European Union. The main benefits of achieving them may be summarized as follows: 4 Gas market integration and the interoperability of the gas transportation systems in the region; 4 Gas price convergence in the region; 4 Eliminating congestion in the transport of natural gas along the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary route 4 Increasing the flexibility of the European natural gas transport system through the provision of bidirectional gas intraconnections; 4 Interconnecting the corridor BULGARIA – ROMANIA – HUNGARY – AUSTRIA with the Black Sea will virtually open the access of the European Union to a new source of natural gas; 4 Increasing competition on the European gas market by diversifying the sources, the transport routes and the companies active in the region;

4 Increasing the security of the natural gas supply; 4 Reducing dependence on imports of natural gas from Russia;

III. Directions of action in perspective Continuing the regulatory programmes started after the entry into force of Law no. 123/2012 of electricity and natural gas, with subsequent amendments and additions, of Law no. 160/2012 for approving Government Ordinance no. 33/2007 concerning the organization and functioning of ANRE and the 3rd Legislative Package of the European Parliament and of the Council for the year 2016, in the process of drafting the regulations, ANRE seeks the implementation of the best European practices in the field, tailored to the national specificity, under a mandatory consultative process at the level of decisionmaking transparency, because only a transparent, stable and secure regulatory environment can contribute to the process of consolidating the market through 29


REGULATION the application of innovative regulatory procedures, accessible both to the operators in the sector and to the general public. The general objective of ANRE for the year 2016 is to continually improve its regulatory activity through the maximum use of the human resources at its disposal, in order to develop a modern regulatory framework, unitary and easy to apply to all the market participants, from the small household customer to the large corporations that are active in the electricity and natural gas sectors. Through the activities envisaged in the Programme of Regulations for the year 2016, ANRE contributes to the achievement of the following strategic objectives:

• setting a timetable for the implementation of binomialtype tariffs for the electricity transmission and distribution service, • supporting smart metering and practical ways of efficient energy use, • reviewing the performance standards for the services of electricity transmission, distribution and supply, • the appointment, on the basis of competitive criteria, of the last resort suppliers in the electricity sector, • improving information to consumers of electricity through the revision of the regulations governing the labelling of electricity;

1. Promoting a European internal electricity and natural gas market that is safe, competitive and sustainable from an environmental point of view and its actual opening for the benefit of all the customers and suppliers in the European Union, as well as guaranteeing adequate conditions for the secure and efficient operation of the electricity and natural gas networks, primarily through regulations targeting: • the completion of the regulatory framework regarding the trading of electricity and natural gas on the market, • ensuring non-discriminatory access to upstream supply pipelines, distribution systems and underground systems for the storage of natural gas, • the revision of the regulations and the terms of validity governing licences and authorizations granted in the natural gas sector, • the revision of the rules for certification/authorization in the electricity sector, • the approval of the rules for the allocation of electricity interconnection capacities;

3. The development of an integrated, secure, reliable and efficient national power system, which is consumer-oriented, allowing the promotion of energy efficiency and the integration of renewable energy sources and of the distributed production both in the transport network and in the distribution network, mainly through regulations aimed at: • improving the regulatory framework governing the wholesale markets of electricity, • approving regulations concerning the implementation, at national level, of the European network codes, • improving the regulatory framework governing the support schemes for the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources and highefficiency cogeneration, • enforcing the provisions of Law No. 121/2014 regarding energy efficiency related to the energy audit and the elaboration of the framework-contract for the provision of energy management service;

2. Consumer protection, including through the provision of correct and complete information to consumers, primarily through regulations aimed at: • adapting the regulatory framework pertaining to the natural gas retail market to the legislative changes concerning the structure of the natural gas market in Romania as a result of the implementation of the price liberalization calendar, 30

4. Increasing transparency through the compliance of the economic operators in the energy and natural gas sector with their obligations, primarily through regulations aimed at: • reviewing the activity of monitoring the electricity and natural gas markets, • establishing rules for drafting and maintaining the regulated accounts compiled by licensed operators in the gas sector, based on their own

rules for the allocation of assets and liabilities, expenditure and income, • revising the requirements for the annual reports provided by license holders in the electricity sector, • increasing the integrity of the electricity and natural gas markets; 5. Facilitating access to the network for the new production capacities, in particular by removing obstacles that prevent the access of new entrants to the electricity and natural gas market or by using renewable sources of energy, mainly through regulations aimed at: • developing the regulatory framework regarding the connection of users to natural gas networks, • establishing the regulated prices and the terms for trading the electricity produced from renewable energy sources and, respectively, for high-efficiency cogeneration in the case of micro and small power groups; 6. Increasing the operation efficiency of the energy transmission and distribution systems in order to accelerate the integration on the market by providing incentives to the operators of electricity networks/ natural gas systems and to other users of electricity networks/ natural gas systems, mainly through regulations aimed at: • establishing the method of calculating regulated tariffs for storage services, • providing a specific regulatory framework for the setting of tariffs charged by the operators of upstream pipelines, • establishing the regulated rate of capital return in the fourth period of regulation for the activities of natural gas transport and underground storage, • revising the methodology of issuing site approvals to the operators of power grids. In order to ensure both a predictable and transparent regulatory framework and the permanent harmonization of the ANRE regulations with the European and national legislative requirements in the field of the energy, ANRE has decided to revise the Programme of Regulations on a trimestral basis. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDITORIAL

THE NATURAL GAS INDUSTRY: TRENDS, CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS Romania has a history of over 100 years in the exploration and exploitation of natural gas and is facing a few big challenges in the years to come: discovering new deposits, exploiting the natural gas discovered in the Black Sea, developing the transport infrastructure and halting the decline of consumption. Some of the solutions are already on the agenda of players on the natural gas market. 31


GAS Romania still has natural gas resources and geological reserves in the amount of 703.227 billion cubic metres, of which the proven reserves represent 101.370 billion cubic metres, the probable reserves – 42.307 billion cubic metres, and the possible reserves – 10.958 billion cubic metres, according to data provided by the National Agency for Mineral Resources in 2015. In the most pessimistic scenario, the actual reserves could run out in 15-20 years, taking into account the average annual production, the steady annual decline of reliable reserves by 5% and a replacement rate of 80%, according to the analysis of the current situation carried out by the Ministry of Energy in February 2016. “In the short and medium term, the proven reserves may increase through the implementation of new technologies, increasing the recovery rate in the existing fields, while in the medium and long term, this can be accomplished by implementing projects for exploring deep-sea areas (below than 3,000 m), onshore areas with a complicated geological structure and offshore areas in the Black Sea, particularly deepwater areas (below 1,000 m),” the document also shows. As regards the deposits, shale gas is also under consideration, as large volumes thereof can be found in Romania. However, as the authors point out, the “development and production of unconventional natural gas requires a suitable level of acceptance on the part of stakeholders and the general public, requiring a comprehensive process of information and public debate. It also requires the regulation of tax mechanisms that will justly compensate the communities affected by the negative effects of such extractive activities”. The most important producers of natural gas in Romania are the Romgaz Medias National Natural Gas Company and OMV Petrom SA, plus four other drilling companies, Foraj Sonde, Amromco Energy, Stratum Energy Romania, according to the data of the National Regulatory Authority in the Field of Energy.

ROMGAZ continues in the Black Sea Romgaz has petroleum agreements for 9 onshore exploration blocks 32

(about 17,650 km² across the Transylvania – around 90% of production, Moldova, Oltenia and Muntenia basins) with 100% working interests and developed major projects in Transylvania (Cris, Laslau Mare, Deleni Deep), Moldova (Frasin Deep), Muntenia (Caragele Deep) in deep reservoirs. The world’s largest producer and the leading provider of natural gas from Romania, the Romgaz Medias National Natural Gas Company SA, consolidated its gas production potential to 15.6 mln cm /day and

GAS PRODUCERS KEY FIGURES The combined market share of natural gas producers 2015: SNGN Romgaz: 48.51% OMV Petrom: 46.13% Others 5.36%: Amromco Energy 3.30%, Stratum Energy 1.86%, Foraj Sonde 0.16%, Raffles Energy 0.04% Source: Monthly Report of Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (December 2015)

stabilized production decline rate at 0% due to: the installation of gas compression and production enhancement/rehabilitation, the acquisition of 3D seismic data, dynamic and static reservoir modelling and production from new discoveries. Overall in 2015: 2 new discoveries accounting jointly for 3% of Romgaz’s daily production, compressor station commissioned –

access to additional 0.50 billion cubic metres (c. 9% of the annual output). Last year, in October, the Romgaz company announced the completion of works on the LIRA 1X exploratory well, which led to the discovery of a major gas deposit, located in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea coast, within the EX-30 Trident Perimeter. Geological exploitations in the Black Sea, within the EX30 Trident Perimeter, have been conducted across an area of 1,006 sq km since 2011, on the basis of the concession agreement concluded with the Government of Romania by the operator LUKOIL Overseas Atash B. V., which owns 72% of the agreement, Romgaz S. A. – 10%, and PanAtlantic Petroleum Ltd. – 18%. The LIRA 1X exploratory well is located at about 170 kilometres (90 nautical miles) off shore, the water depth being approximately 700 m. The well was drilled up to a depth of 2,700 m (8,858 ft), with the help of the semi-submersible marine drilling platform “Development Driller II”, belonging to the company Transocean Ltd. According to the preliminary findings of the data analysis conducted during the drilling process and the geophysical investigations, the LIRA 1X exploratory well encountered a gas field with a width of 46 meters. According to the seismic data, the surface area of the field can reach 39 sq km and the reserves, which are yet to be confirmed by the appraisal drilling, can exceed 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The program of the future works, scheduled for 2016, includes reprocessing the seismic data and the drilling of the Lira field with an exploratory WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


GAS OMV could begin production in 2020

“For Romgaz, the Black Sea platform exploration partnership represents a new development direction in terms of the business and the portfolio of gas deposits. We are a company with an experience of over 100 years in onshore works, but we are open to the new challenges of offshore works and we are glad to have partners with experience in the field” Virgil Marius Metea, General Manager of SNGN Romgaz SA Medias

assessment probe, in order to confirm the volume of the discovery and the hydrocarbon potential. “For Romgaz, the Black Sea platform exploration partnership represents a new development direction in terms of the business and the portfolio of gas deposits. We are a company with an experience of over 100 years in onshore works, but we are open to the new challenges of offshore works and we are glad to have partners with experience in the field,” as Virgil Marius Metea, General Manager of SNGN Romgaz SA Mediaş, has stated. Earlier this year, after solid analysis, Romgaz along with its partners Lukoil Overseas Atash Bv and PanAtlantic Petroleum notified the National Agency for Mineral Resources about their intention to relinquish the execution of petroleum operations in the Rapsodia perimeter, which is the second perimeter leased by the world’s largest producer of natural gas in Romania. Romgaz reported recovery factors between 55% and 85% for most fields (90% in the more mature fields).

OMV Petrom, the largest integrated group of oil and gas producer in South-Eastern Europe, operates 239 commercial oil and gas fields in Romania, of which it produced a combined volume of 65.19 mn boe hydrocarbon, of which natural gas amounted to 34.48 mn boe (5.27 billion cubic metres). The exploration and assessment of the Neptune Deep Perimeter continued in 2015 within the framework of the partnership between OMV Petrom and ExxonMobil. “In the Neptune Perimeter, together with our partner, ExxonMobil, we continued exploring the growth potential upstream, completing, in January 2016, the second exploratory drilling campaign, which included the digging of seven wells. The majority indicated the presence of natural gas. We also successfully tested a probe on the Domino structure. The program has required investments of over 1.5 billion USD since 2008, of which 50% represents OMV Petrom’s contribution”, as the Annual Report of the company shows. The Pelican South-1 exploration well (drilling started in October 2014) was completed in March 2015, the installation being moved later for drilling at the Dolphin-1, Flamingo-1 and Califar-1 wells. Also, an exploration well has been tested successfully on the Domino structure. The drilling activity ended with the Pelican South 2 exploration well, whose drilling started in December 2015. The exploration and appraisal campaign included a total of seven wells, during July 2014-January 2016, in waters with depths ranging between 130 m and 1,614 m, the majority of these wells indicating the presence of hydrocarbons. Rainer Seele, CEO of OMV, the majority shareholder of OMV Petrom, present in Bucharest at the end of April, referred to the exploration wells in the Neptune perimeter and the possibility of starting production there thus: “I don’t think we can talk about substantial volumes being extracted from the Neptune Perimeter in the Black Sea earlier than 2019. We have not yet completed with our partner Exxon our appraisals of the deposits in the perimeter and we need more time to determine the profile of the

investment there. We don’t know what Exxon will do with its share of production in the Black Sea, but what we want is that most of what we will have should stay in Romania”. “In Romania, we continued to study exploration potential near our Domino gas discovery in the Romanian Black Sea, completing exploration and appraisal wells in 2015. ExxonMobil has a 50-percent working interest in the Neptune Deep block covering approximately 932,000 net acres in the Black Sea. During 2015, ExxonMobil drilled multiple exploration and appraisal wells in the block. Based on the results of the 2014–2015 drilling program, detailed development planning and economic viability studies will continue in 2016”, it is written in the 2015 ExxonMobil Financial and Operating Review.

Transgaz develops BRUA The natural gas transport infrastructure is operated by the Transgaz National Natural Gas Transmission Company SA. The natural gas transport and system operator has a major interconnection project underway, which will ensure the creation of regional routes for the transport of natural gas from new supply sources, creating the necessary infrastructure for the takeover and transport of natural gas from the off-shore fields in the Black Sea, expanding the natural gas transport infrastructure in order to improve supply in areas where there is a shortage and to establish a single market, integrated at EU level. On 19 January, the leadership of SNTGN Transgaz SA released the overdue news, received from the European Union Member States, via the Steering Committee of the Energy Efficiency (EFC). “The European Union allocates Euro 179.3 million for the fulfillment of the first stage of the project proposed by Transgaz which was included in the PCI List 1/2013 ‘Gas pipeline from Bulgaria to Austria, via Romania and Hungary’ named: according to the Gas Transmission System Development Plan 2014 – 2023 (TYNDP) – ‘The development on the Romanian territory of the Gas transmission system on the transmission corridor Bulgaria – Romania – Hungary – Austria’ – (abbreviated BRUA) – first stage,” as shown in the company’s press 33


GAS release. The allocation of 179.3 million euros represents 40% of the estimated eligible value. “The European co – funding of the BRUA project – first stage is a success due to the professionalism of the experts of the European Funds and International Relations department and of Transgaz’ specialists who contributed with their expertise during the entire preparation process”, the Transgaz leadership also stated. The project entails the development of a natural gas transmission capacity between the existing points of interconnection with the natural gas transmission grids of Bulgaria (Giurgiu) and Hungary (Csanadpalota), through the construction of a new pipeline, with a total length of approximately 550 km, along the Giurgiu – Podișor – Corbu – Hurezani – Hațeg – Recaș – Horia corridor and of three compression stations located along the route of the pipeline (SC Corbu, SC Hațeg, SC Horia). The BRUA gas pipeline will be completed in 2019. The section up to the Black Sea would add another 300 kilometres to this pipeline. When the pipeline becomes operational, the project will ensure a maximum natural gas transport capacity of 1.5 billion cubic metres per year toward Bulgaria and of 4.4 billion cubic metres per year toward Hungary. Beyond the European strategy for a single energy market, the project and its funding also have geo-political stakes. The BRUA gas pipeline could

Top 5 of end-user customers ** in December 2015 Households 30.71% Industrial Producers of thermal and electrical energy 16.50% Industrial Producers of thermal energy for the population 9.84% Commercial 7.32% Technological consumption 6.79% * Technological Consumption = CT Producers + CT Transgaz + CT distributors ** Includes even the billing information of domestic clients, which provides for quarterly regulations that reflect actual consumption Source: Monthly Report of Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (December 2015)

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provide energy security, as Europe is now dependent (especially) on Russian gas (one third of the natural gas consumption in Western Europe is imported from Russia) and is the largest importer of energy on the planet. The gas pipeline would lead to a diversification of the supply sources, including from the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea toward Central Europe, as well as to the establishment of interconnections between Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Western Europe.

Investments in distribution The distribution is ensured by 41 system operators in Romania, but the first two – E.ON Distribution (20,000 km) and Distrigaz Sud Reţele (17,000 km), which supply gas to about 3.2 million consumers, have a combined market share of 89%. The two companies entered the Romanian market in 2005, with the privatization of natural gas distribution. In 2015, E.ON invested 160 million lei (36 million euros) in the natural gas area, the distribution system being upgraded and modernized over a length of 450 kilometres and extended over a length of 150 kilometres. Over 190 million lei (43 million euros) were budgeted for 2016, the main objectives concerning the modernization of about 500 kilometres of pipelines and branch fittings and the expansion of distribution system by another 150 kilometres. “A steady pace continuation of the rehabilitation and modernization

programs for natural gas and power grids, the consolidation of the position held on the relevant market, as well as the launching of new products and services for customers represent the main priorities of the company in the next period,” as Frank Hajdinjak, CEO of E.ON Romania, has stated. In 2014 Engie Romania distributed 40.5 TW natural gas according to the consolidated data (after the rebranding of GDF Suez Energy Romania, through Distrigaz Sud Rețele, unique shareholder, Congaz – acquired in 1986, the majority shareholder with 85.7% share capital, Tulcea Gaz and Wirom Gas, where the company owns minority share packages). The appetite for new purchases of distributions is, for now,

“The EU remains open for Russian gas and we would like to see Russia as a reliable supplier of natural gas in future; but we would also like to see that the transport of Russian gas fits into our diversification strategy and that the Russian supplier as any other supplier in the EU plays to our competition and energy market rules” Miguel Arias Cañete, Climate Action and Energy Policy Commissioner WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


GAS “A steady pace continuation of the rehabilitation and modernization programs for natural gas and power grids, the consolidation of the position held on the relevant market, as well as the launching of new products and services for customers represent the main priorities of the company in the next period” Frank Hajdinjak, CEO of E.ON Romania appeased. “We have a strong position on the gas market, so we don’t need to take over other companies”, as stated by Eric Stab, Chairman and CEO of Engie Romania. According to Eric Stab, the company has invested over 400 million lei in modernizing the network and will continue investing in this area.

Lower consumption in Romania Gas consumption increased last year by approximately 4% compared with 2014, according to the latest estimates from Eurogas. This rise, the first in four years, was mirrored by an increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports highlighting further diversification of supply. One contributory factor has been

the weather. Temperatures in 2015 were closer to the average than in 2014. Residential demand for gas in heating saw net increases in a number of countries. However, at the national level, the effect varied from country to country, as well as season to season. The most significant increases in consumption were recorded in Slovenia: 22.5%, Portugal: 11.7%, Belgium: 9.5%, Italy: 9.1% and France: 7.8%. The steepest drop in consumption took place in Estonia: – 23.1%. Reductions in consumption by over 8.5% have been recorded in Finland: – 10.8%, Sweden: – 9.3 % and Luxembourg: – 8.8%. In Romania, too, consumption has dropped, according to the Eurostat data, by 4.6%, a decrease confirmed, in fact, by the data provided by the largest supplier of natural gas – Romgaz SA. During the first 9 months of last

year, the most important purchasers from Romgaz were the supply companies of the two distributions, which totalled 63% of the company’s production. In 2016, however, E.ON Energie Romania has rescinded a contract with Romgaz for gas supplies during the April-September period, amounting to a total of 281 million lei, intending to purchase imported gas, but it has maintained the contract amounting to 504 million lei. OMV Petrom expects that gas demand will remain relatively stable in Romania, but that competition and margin pressure will increase, given also the high competitiveness of import gas. The monthly evolution of the weighted average price, without tariffs, of natural gas from domestic production, sold by producers to the providers of regulated end-

Projects of Transgaz 4 1. Corridor Between Bulgaria and Hungary (ROHUAT/BRUA), PHASE 1 Project of Common Interest 7. 1. 5 according to first PCI List and 6. 24. 2 according to the second list of PCI 2015 Purpose: Access to future major infrastructures running trough Greece and Bulgaria (TAP, South Stream, etc. ) or to sources from Central Europe. Capacity: 1. 75 bcm/yr to Hungary 1. 5 bcm/yr to Bulgaria Required investments – 33’’x63 bar pipeline ~478 km – 3 compressor stations Total estimated costs Around 479 mil. Euro E. U. contribution: 179 mil. Euro 4 2. Corridor Between Bulgaria and Hungary (ROHUAT/BRUA), PHASE 2 Project of Common Interest 7. 1. 5 according to first PCI List and 6. 24. 7 (conditional) according to the second list of PCI 2015 Purpose: Increase capacity of Phase 1 in order to be able

to transport gas from the Black Sea reserves. Capacity increase: From 1. 75 bcm/yr to 4. 4 bcm/yr to Hungary Required investments – 33’’x63 bar pipeline ~50 km – Capacity increase of 3 compressor stations – Capacity increase of measuring station Total estimated costs Around 69 mil. Euro Final Investment Decision – 2017 Estimated Commissioning 2020 4 3. Access To Black Sea New Gas Supply Project of Common Interest (conditional) 6. 24. 8 New pipeline project for connecting the Black Sea shore with the transmission corridor connecting the interconnections RO – HU and RO-BG: Required investments: New pipeline section with a total length of 285 km Estimated investment cost: 263 mil Euro Estimated completion: 2020

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GAS user customers in 2015, recorded a minimum of 53.17 lei/MW in January and a peak of 59.89 lei in October. The monthly evolution of the weighted average price, without tariffs, of natural gas from domestic production, sold by producers to the providers of end-user customers on the competitive market in 2015, reached its peak in November – 80.63 lei/MWh, while the minimum was recorded in May – 72.46 lei/MWh. The monthly evolution of the weighted average price of natural gas, resulting from transactions concluded on centralized markets in 2015 recorded a maximum 88.29 lei in November, wholesale, while maximum on the retail segment was reached in the month of January – 133.12 lei. The wholesale minimum did not fall below

80 lei, while the retail market did not go below 100 lei/MW.

ROMGAZ, the leader in storage In terms of the underground storage of natural gas, operated for the most part by SNGN Romgaz SA Medias, 90% of the market share, Romgaz owns six facilities (90% market share) -– working capacity 2. 77 billion cubic metres plus 40% stake in joint venture with Gaz de France – Depomures (300 million cubic metres). Romgaz holds the largest storage capacity at Bilciureşti – 1.31 billion cubic metres. In recent years, it has invested in expanding its storage capacity at Urziceni,

In late 2015, Miguel Arias Cañete, Climate Action and Energy Policy Commissioner, had a very interesting intervention in the European Parliament’s Plenary Assembly. He announced several measures designed to ensure the energy security of European citizens, namely the revision of the Law on the Security of Gas Supply, the publication of a new comprehensive strategy concerning LNG and storage, as well as the proposal of several changes in the Intergovernmental Agreements (IGAs). The goal is simple: Putting an end to overdependence on a single supplier or route and give each Member State three potential sources of gas, be it from pipeline gas from different sources, LNG or storage. In this regard we count on a rapidly growing market for LNG which will allow us to more than double our imports from around 40 billion cubic meters to up to 90 billion cubic meters by 2020; we will invest in modernizing our storages and accelerate the work of better interconnecting the Member States. We are making good progress in these areas. In fact in the last few months alone we managed to have first tangible results in those regions still insufficiently linked with the internal market. Let me give you a few examples: The new high-level group on Gas Connectivity in Central Eastern and Southeast Europe will increase interconnections in that region in the post-South Stream world. The political agreement in July between Spain, Portugal and France on the development of the MiDCAT pipeline will increase gas interconnection capacity between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe. We are hopeful that the MIDCAT is operational by 2020. Work is also on track for a first delivery of 10 billion cubic meters per year of gas from Azerbaijan to Europe in 2020 through the Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic (TAP) pipelines. The restructured Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan (BEMIP) will be our key instrument to fully integrate the Baltic countries into Europe. Just next week we will see that to come to fruition when the agreement on the GIPL gas interconnector between Poland and Lithuania will be signed. That project includes an EU contribution of almost 300 million €. I cannot stress how important that work is because as it stands, the EU still imports 36

from 150 million to 360 million cubic metres and is currently running a process of expanding the storage capacity of the warehouse in Sărmășel, from 0.8 to 0.9 billion cubic metres. The analysis conducted by the Ministry of Energy has brought into question Romania’s unexploited potential for storing natural gas in depleted deposits, aquifers, saline cavities, etc. Moreover, according to the European Commission – Directorate-General for Energy, which published the study “The role of gas storage in internal market and in ensuring security of supply”, Romania ranks tenth in terms of storage capacities, after countries like Germany, France or Italy, but also Austria, Hungary, Slovakia or the Netherlands.

around a third of its gas from Russia, about half of which currently transits Ukraine. Which brings me on to Nord Stream 2. The Commission has taken note of the shareholders agreement to build two further stretches of the Nord Stream pipeline. The first thing to say is that Nord Stream 2 remains a commercial project. And of course, it will be for commercial parties to decide which infrastructure is viable for them. But let me be clear: as with any other pipeline in the EU, this pipeline will have to fully respect EU law, in particular the Third Energy Package, but also environmental, competition and public procurement rules. The Commission will assess it rigorously against the European regulatory framework. That assessment will be done on its own merits. Transport capacity from Russia is currently only used at around 50% rate and that already well exceeds the EU’s needs for likely future supplies. If constructed, Nord Stream 2 would – according to our estimates – increase excess transmission capacity from Russia even further. I want to stress that the Commission actively supports efforts to ensure that Ukraine is and will remain a stable and reliable transit route. Let me finish by underlining that the EU remains open for Russian gas and we would like to see Russia as a reliable supplier of natural gas in future; but we would also like to see that the transport of Russian gas fits into our diversification strategy and that the Russian supplier as any other supplier in the EU plays to our competition and energy market rules”. Gazprom, BASF, E.ON, ENGIE, OMV and Shell inked the Shareholders Agreement to construct the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline system with the capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas a year from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. Germany is the biggest Russian gas consumer. In 2014 Gazprom sold 40.3 billion cubic meters of gas in the German market”. Present in Romania, Rainer Seele, CEO of OMV, has stated that Nord Stream 2 represents an advantage for OMV as concerns the security of supplies, insisting, at the same time, that the OMV Petrom operations will not suffer as a result of the construction of Nord Stream 2, which will carry natural gas toward the hub in Baumgarten, Austria. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


GAS Virgil Marius Metea, General Manager:

“ROMGAZ CAN BECOME A PROMINENT AND ACTIVE REGIONAL PLAYER ON THE ENERGY MARKET” The largest producer and most important supplier of natural gas in Romania, the National Gas Company Romgaz Medias, has distinguished itself in the energy sector through several strengths, as Virgil Marius Metea, General Manager of the company, believes. “The financial stability of the company is recognised both by its partners and by its investors. It is well known that we have no debts and that investments are made from our own resources. Our specialized staff and the new technologies used in production ensure the quality of the products and services offered”, according to the manager of Romgaz SA.

How would you characterize the preliminary results that SNGN Romgaz obtained at the end of this financial year, registering a slight decline compared with the results from the same period of last year, but still within the forecast limits? In 2015, Romgaz had a turnover of 4.05 million lei. Compared to the reference year 2014, we have registered indeed a decline, but we must take into account the exceptional results of the previous year, as well as the current market context. Besides a satisfactory turnover, we have cut the costs by 77.10% compared to last year and we have a profit/employee of 237.27 thousand lei, which places us among the top companies in which the State is the main shareholder. What has impacted negatively the company’s performance, a performance that remains impressive anyway? Average and high temperatures compared with the previous periods, as well as the drastic fall in consumer demand in the chemical industry (especially in the fertilizers industry), have had a direct impact on natural gas sales. A significant proportion of the investment programme approved for 2015 was intended for investments in works of geological exploration for the discovery of new reserves, so does this aspect represent a change in the business paradigm of SNGN Romgaz SA?

Not necessarily. Romgaz undertakes multi-staged exploration and exploitation. These stages succeed in the case of leased perimeters, but may overlap in time for different areas. In other words, both directions receive the necessary attention, to the same extent, but there are moments when investment budgets are concentrated in one activity or the other, depending on the company’s strategy and the market conditions. SNGN Romgaz SA has carried out several investment projects aimed at increasing the underground storage capacity, the discovery of new reserves, the exploitation of mature ore deposits. What stage are they in? Right. We have different directions in which we invest, but they converge towards common objectives: increasing the portfolio of resources and gas reserves, the optimization, development and diversification of the underground storage activity, strengthening our position on the energy supply markets, identifying new opportunities for growth and diversification and, not least, improving the company’s performance. In 2015 we completed 912 sq km of 3D exploration on the Romanian territory. This information will be used in determining the future exploration program. Since we are talking about figures, in 2015 we drilled 31 exploration probes. I can mention, among the latest developments in the activity of exploration, the completion, in

December 2015, of the development from Criş, the completion of the production tests at Ţapu and Laslău, continuing the development work from Caragele, as well as the ongoing activity of drilling two wells with a goal of over 4000 m on the Moesica Platform. In terms of production, we have managed to stop the natural decline by enhancing the process of production potential stabilization to the level of 15.6 million cubic meters/day. Since last year, the two new discoveries, the probes at Criş1 (Mureş County) and Frasin (Suceava County), provide 3% of the company’s daily natural gas production. Also, the new Roman compression station provides additional access to deposits of 0.50 billion cubic meters (cca. 9% of the annual production); however, the current level of production is influenced by the market demand. An important direction for Romgaz and for the country’s energy security is the natural gas storage capacity. As is well known, Romgaz has 6 deposits representing cca. 90% of the storage market in Romania. They have a total capacity of 2.77 billion cubic meters. In 2014 we completed the Urziceni storage faciltiy (0.360 billion cubic meters /cycle), and at Sărmăşel we have an ongoing investment in a storage facility of 0.9 billion cubic meters /cycle. A new direction of development for Romgaz consists in the off-shore projects in the Black Sea. As we informed the public in the past, too, we have a participation share of 10% in the Trident and Rapsodia 37


GAS perimeters, together with Lukoil and PanAtlantic, as well as an option contract with a share of 10% in the Neptune perimeter, along with ExxonMobil and OMV Petrom. Last year we announced together with our partners an important discovery in the Trident perimeter, a deposit with reserves, to be confirmed by the appraisal drilling, which can exceed 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas. For the Rapsodia perimeter, due to the results of the exploration operations, the association consortium examines the possibility of withdrawal. It is natural, though not desirable, for some exploration operations to fail to produce the expected results. It pertains to the specific activity of our company and it is a risk assumed by the partners. SNGN Romgaz SA enriched its portfolio of activities in recent years, by taking over the thermal power station in Iernut, for example, in exchange for a debt, or by creating the Bratislava Branch, and aims to diversify it in the future. Please tell us what are the new envisaged activities and what they entail from the point of view of investments, i.e. how they will be reflected, according to your estimate, in the turnover? In 2013 we became producers of electricity through the acquisition of CET Iernut. It should be noted at the outset that it is a serious challenge, even for Romgaz, to maintain this business at a feasible level, given the current market conditions and taking into account the age of the plant. Still, so far we can say that things have been largely satisfying, as we have managed to keep the plant “on its feet”, with positive consequences on the labour force in the area. The balancing role of SEN will be exploited further by the position of the plant from Iernut within the energy system, in the context in which wind power must find its necessary back-up. System services, as a stand-by component, supplement the power plant’s revenues. In the future we are considering the possibility of modernizing the plant to increase its yield. The project in Slovakia is linked to the international evolution of oil prices. At the moment we are evaluating the results achieved in conjunction with the international situation of oil prices. 38

What is the company’s strategy for 2016 in order to increase the sales volume and attract new clients? I think you will agree with me if I say that I should not talk about the sales strategy in specific terms, but from a general point of view. The company will access all the markets available at this time. Account should be taken of the fact that in terms of export, the gas market in Romania is a closed market, which means that very small quantities of gas can be exported at the moment. If gas consumption continues to decline, it is possible that the offer will exceed the supply and we will have to cut production, even though the price of gas will decline. Under these circumstances, we are considering identifying activities in the economy that can create real value based on gas consumption. Here we are open to any feasible project. On the other hand, in the context of the Paris Agreement of 2015, aimed at reducing global warming and greenhouse gases, fuel-based natural gas could face further development in the near future. We can infer that a coherent energy strategy could provide us with some highlights, around which a company majority-owned by the State like Romgaz can build its own development strategy. What are the strengths of the company you are leading in the competition with other players on the world market? The financial stability of the company is recognised both by our partners and by our investors. It is well known that we have no debts and that investments are made from our own resources. Our specialized staff and the new technologies used in production ensure the quality of our products and services. You took over a profitable company in 2013 and managed, in the first year of your mandate, to obtain a profit that was over 10 times higher than in the previous year and to maintain a high profit in the coming years. What was the most difficult thing to change in the company after taking office? 2014 was an exceptional year both as regards the results obtained and in terms of the market conditions

If you were to build a bridge across time, which are the pillars on which SNGN Romgaz SA currently relies on? Tradition and experience - over 100 years of experience. Openness to innovation and learning - the company’s staff is continuously trained to be up to date with the newest technologies in the field. The infrastructure at a high technical level - the company has gone through a process of modernizing its compression stations, probe groups, storage facilities and equipment, which has led to reducing pollution and increasing productivity. Financial stability we have no debts and investments are made from our own sources. Commitment and initiative - we are close to society and make our presence felt in the communities in which we operate. Quality and safety increasing the quality of the products and services offered is a continuous activity.

WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


GAS

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GAS and opportunities, which we tried to valorize as efficiently as possible; it was therefore the best year in the company’s history. In the summer of 2013, when I took over the leadership of Romgaz, the company was already in the process of preparation and redefinition for the purpose of launching the IPO in November 2013. It was a challenging joint effort of Romgaz, which in the end was worth it, because we managed to have one of the most highly appreciated stock market listings among state-owned companies. The stock exchange listing of Romgaz has proved to be beneficial, by ensuring greater transparency, creating a more favourable image and rallying the confidence of the shareholders, and here I do not necessarily refer only to the majority shareholders. It is a pity, and this holds true for all listed companies in which the State is the majority shareholder, that the harmonization of the legislation has not been achieved.

Romgaz sells its entire production either on the regulated market or on the open market, through bilateral contracts. We have also tried the energy stock market, but it seems that this is not a “main” market used by clients, in view of the small quantities traded on it; for customers that carry out a continuous activity, bilateral contracts are preferred, because they ensure greater safety. The reasons may also be related to secondary legislation, which requires modifications in order to achieve a legal framework that can foster the development of a high-performing market, especially at the level of centralized markets, of the trading mechanisms and necessary guarantees, etc. For a free market, the safety of transactions is essential, regardless of whether they unfold in a stockmarket or bilateral environment. ANRE will have to “cleanse” the market of possible uncertainty elements through regulatory measures.

Have you ever been forced to change your strategy because of external causes such as lower consumption, following the disappearance of large industrial consumers, transport tariff increase, the lack of predictability, the introduction of special construction taxes, which are, admittedly, lower today, and many others. As I mentioned before, the size of production is influenced by market demand. Of course, a drastic decrease in consumption can bring changes in the production activity. However, Romgaz has proved that it has a good capacity to adapt and adjust itself, and the experience of over 100 years in the field is a testimony to this effect.

Transgaz SA is currently developing several interconnecting projects and Romgaz has explored several offshore perimeters in the Black Sea. What will be the consequences of increasing the interconnectivity of Romgaz for the implementation of off-shore drilling rigs? A large part of the projects developed by Transgaz are part of European interconnection programmes. As a player on the energy market, Romgaz is directly concerned with their development, the emergent business opportunities being evident. Taking into account its activities portfolio and the infrastructure it owns, Romgaz can become an important and active regional player on the energy market.

You are forced to sell part of the natural gas production on the centralized trading markets, but you are confronted with the lack of offers on the market, just like your direct internal competitor. What solutions for marketing production does the management of SNGN Romgaz have in these situations and have you made recommendations to the regulator? What are these recommendations with a view to unblocking this situation on the market? 40

The representatives of companies operating in the energy sector – from producers to companies focused on delivering technical solutions in the domain – have reported the instability and unpredictability of the legislative and regulatory framework in the short, medium and long term. How has the company SNGN Romgaz SA been affected by the changes in the primary legislation and the secondary regulations?

The largest chapter in the company’s expenditure structure consists of the taxes. We understand the role of the state companies in providing sources of income for the state budget, but the lack of harmonisation between the specific and the fiscal legislation can create anomalies. In the European Union there are premises for a future Energy Union that will take into account points such as the diversification of external supply sources, the modernization of the energy infrastructure, the completion of the EU’s internal energy market and carrying out energy savings. Are we strategically prepared, from your point of view, not to become an energy market for the other European countries ot a regional energy hub on the market? This question gives birth, in turn, to other questions that must be answered before reaching the decision to liberalize the energy market/Union. • Is there in Romania a real competitive and comparable environment, taking into account that the market is closed to export and open to imports of natural gas? • Is there a need for the harmonization of the regulatory framework legislation and of taxation, which would permit fair competition on an integrated market? • Are all the risks related to safety and vulnerability recognised? • Can the lack of a national energy strategy create long-term problems in case of an early liberalization? If we have an answer to these questions, then we can speak of a stable market and not of an outlet market. In the event of the unification of the energy market at European level, of the development of interconnection projects, can we still talk about Romania’s energy independence? Markets can unify when they are compatible, see the previous answer. On the other hand, the concept of independence moves to the European level and it should be accompanied by the concept of supply and source security. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


GAS

My passion: natural gas

IOAN GLIGA AND IOAN STAN, LIVING PORTRAITS OF GAS SPECIALISTS You could have quit this job I don’t know how many times, because it is a beautiful, but difficult and risky profession. You often practise it in adverse atmospheric conditions and you don’t have a fixed program. When a probe starts drilling, even if it takes two years, it is not allowed to stop, there are no breaks. These are just some of the thoughts that are form the story of Ioan Gliga and Ioan Stan, two professionals in the natural gas industry, now retired, thoughts about the profession they dedicated themselves to for several decades. The stories of the people in the natural gas industry have inspired many authors with a genuine passion for this fascinating world, built more than 100 years ago, which today is redefined in the global, European and regional context.

Mureş County, situated in Romania’s historical region of Transylvania, is a place blessed with natural resources. In fact, its name is linked to the beginning of the natural gas industry on the territory of present-day Romania. The story of natural gas began more than a century ago in a village in Mureş County, Sărmășel, a place of pilgrimage for this industry’s enthusiasts. We embarked on just such a pilgrimage and have brought you a few photos of today’s situation and the story of the discovery of natural gas in Transylvania, which was a part of Austria-Hungary at that time. “At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, there was a very big crisis

of potassium salts, which were highly sought after in the field of chemistry, in pyrotechnics and in agriculture. Potassium salts are found in the same place with sodium salts, rock salt. And here, in Transylvania, rock salt was close to the surface, there were the diapirs of salt. Considering that in Dej and Cojocna salt was close to the surface, a geologist, Pap, was sent here to install a probe and look for potassium salts. Coming from Dej, he found them in Sărmaş, at the market, he dug up a probe of 627 m. The well was abandoned later due to technical problems. He had a second probe dug, coming from Cojocna towards Sărmășel. On the way to Sărmășel, discussing about the probe with the carriage driver,

the latter recounted to him that he had been cured of a fever by bathing in the salty mud from the Mureş village and said that the mud had some bubbles which burned if you set them on fire. The geologist came and installed the probe probe 2, in Sărmășel, through which gas was discovered,” as Ioan Gliga has recounted to us the happening of more than 100 years ago, recorded, throughout time, in many written accounts. Drilling began, using a probe with a wooden steeple, equipped with pulleys, which was designed to reach a depth of 1500 m. “On 26 November 1908, he began drilling, when he arrived at 122 m, there were some rather obtrusive gas emissions, they tubed a 41


GAS column of 320 mm and then continued drilling and when they reached 280 m, there was a strong eruption of gas, and from an oil lamp, everything caught fire and the whole wooden spire burned down. Eventually, the eruption was steered laterally, they tubed the 279 mm column and rebuilt the spire. During this time they let the probe erupt freely for two and a half years, hoping that the flow rate would further decrease, as this amounted, according to measurements, to 900,000 cubic meters a day. It was the fourth largest probe in the world”, Ioan Gliga continued his story. After two and a half years of free discharge, they ordered the closing of the probe so as not to squander the rich deposit of gas. “The operation of closing the probe was especially difficult because no tubed column was cemented. For this reason, to be able to master the gases, a packer was introduced - a stopper made of gunny cloth, mounted on the 203 mm column, at a depth of 128 m, above which they poured cement to close it. Afterwards they mounted at the mouth of a well a shut-off cap. After the cement hardened, they mounted a shut-off cap. On 31 July 1911, the recorded pressure was 28

atmospheres”, Ioan Gliga summed up another operation from the beginning of the history of natural gas in Romania. Things didn’t stop here. After three months a great eruption of gas occurred through six craters formed from 70 up to 320 m east of the probe. Shortly afterwards, the gas caught fire from the lamp of a watchman. To reduce emanations from the craters, the probe was opened again, being left to freely erupt until it was coupled to the transport pipeline which was under construction.

An historic day The official date recorded in the sources of the time referring to the discovery of natural gas in Transylvania is 22 April 1909. This was 99% pure gas, methane, and the rest was oxygen, nitrogen and helium. The discovery of natural gas led to the development of the gas transport system. In the following period, the first pipeline SărmășelTurda-Ocna Mureş was built. After the Great Union of 1918, there began a laborious process of mapping the areas of Transylvania, the outcrops, there were highlighted the domes, the vaults, so that the drilling probes could be placed as close to the centre of the dome as possible. Wells were dug at Târnăveni, Sângeorgiu de Mureş, Zau de Câmpie, Şincai and in some other places in Transylvania, but all with negative results. Given this situation, there was a reorientation towards areas where there were recorded emanations of gas, wells being dug at Sărmaş - 9, Şincai - 2, Zau de Câmpie - 1 and

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on other structures from outside Mureș County, the vast majority intercepting gas deposits. Along the time, the evidence of each deposit was kept extremely strictly, as the two professionals have told us. “In all of the country’s structures, work began in October so as to present the situation to the Ministry on 1 January. You were supposed to present what you have discovered, the volume, how much had been extracted, which was the volume in the ground on 1 January. There were 38 horizontal sections and a few tens of thousands vertically”, as Ioan Gliga remembers.

An undesired profession To become a specialist in the natural gas industry took a long time and called for the completion of the training journey, stage by stage. There were no shortcuts and you could not become a good professional without having carried out hard work, in the field. “I would not accept an engineer becoming a leader without his having gone through the stage of drilling. It is an essential stage that enables one to see some phenomena that can be observed only by the probe, how they occur and how they can be solved, how one can adapt to the conditions outside, what it is like not to have a fixed program, but to have to stay there until they are solved. For me, who started drilling in 1962, until 1967, when they called me to the General Directorate, this was indeed a stage that meant introducing me in an area where work is of a different kind than we’d thought”, Ioan Gliga remembers. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


GAS And it wasn’t easy to train specialists because after the war and later, towards the Revolution of 1989, jobs in the field of natural gas were not much desired in Romania. “At Mediaş there was a vocational school where people were trained in all the professions in the gas industry. Almost everyone who came there had a contract, and when their contract ended, all left the gas sector. People were needed in this sector all the time, but they didn’t stay long in the gas industry because there were no conditions, and the wages were not extraordinarily high. We always lacked labour”, Ioan Stan recalls. In 1979, Ioan Stan was appointed head of the Corunca compression station and he remembers that the following year he started recruiting staff and couldn’t find people. “We relied on people who worked for SMT in Corunca, most of them tractor drivers”, as the specialist points out. And since we mentioned compression stations, let us make a parenthesis and note that for a while, since natural gas had high pressure, it was captured and transferred directly into the transport pipelines from Mureş County to Bucharest, about 300400 km. In time, however, deposits thinned out and significant investment was needed in the compressing stations to transport gas across long distances at a high pressure. This is how compression stations were built on the main lines, and then at the exit from fields - the first was that of Botorca and then at Ţigmandru, Balda and Corunca, all in Mureş County. For a long time, the Tîrgu Mureş Section provided half the natural gas in Romania and consumption was almost double than that of the present time, when Romania no longer consumes even 12 billion cubic metres annually. But passionate people stood apart from the others like wheat from the chaff or crude oil from water, and the rewards of those who loved the craft were immeasurable. “It’s like in medicine, just like discovering a disease, here you can discover a field, it’s important that you’ve discovered it, it’s a very big satisfaction”, says Ioan Stan about the passion that united a complex team of 5-6 engineers working on

the probe, 15 people for every shift. After the probe was put into service, other issues arose. At that time maintenance was not outsourced. There were long days and nights because you had to intervene immediately when a piece of equipment stopped working. People stood in the field 24-48 hours without sleeping in order to fix it. “There was something wrong with the Nadeș drying station, it’s somewhere out there in the field, there was a landslide and when exiting the station, the pipeline cracked and the station ignited, we intervened, working all summer there. A valve which entered the pipeline towards Bucharest did not fit, we couldn’t work in the station because they were gas emanations. Nor could we enter with anything because there was this a slope,

landslides. We had to stop the gas supply to Bucharest, but who gave you permission to stop the whole field so as to change a valve at that time? We had the people dig a pit, we used the saw and the hack saw blade, and in 2 days we cut the 16 inch pipe, opened it, removed the coupon, cut it afterwards with the welding machine, soldered it, then put it back together, clamped it up and insulated the pipe. I think that work still holds”, as Ioan Stan remembers one of the many moments when he was forced to act lucidly in a crisis situation. There would still be more to add and we are sorry to be forced to squeeze a thrilling and fascinating history into just a few pages. We hope to have captured the essence of a profession which was born out of a fluke and has such outstanding people to represent it.

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GAS

E.ON INCREASES ITS ANNUAL INVESTMENTS IN ROMANIA BY 100 MILLION EUROS E.ON has been present on the Romanian market for more than 10 years now. It is the first integrated energy provider in Romania. Frank Hajdinjak, CEO of E.ON Romania, says that, together with his colleagues, he has coped with a series of special experiences, difficult and challenging at the same time, over the course of this decade.

H

ow would you define this first decade in Romania? We have permanently adapted to an energy market that has undergone major changes and we have had to deal, more than once, with legislative changes that occurred overnight. We learned from one another and we have demonstrated that German rigorousness gets on well with the Romanian spirit. That is how we found the key to success, by working together, knowing one another and going through different experiences together. We have always sought to

reach out to the customers, to better understand their needs and desires. We are proud that today we are a major player on the natural gas and electricity market in Romania. Which have been the most significant results of E.ON since it entered the market in Romania? During these years, we have taken important steps that have strengthened the company’s activity and have helped us to become an important player on the energy market. It has been a decade of

continuous challenges, of adaptation and evolution, in which we have managed to overcome every obstacle with confidence, and that has made us stronger and better prepared for the future. At the same time, we respected the promises we made when we came to Romania, becoming a long-term strategic investor that contributes to the modernization of the Romanian energy sector. We have invested approximately 1.3 billion euros in Romania, primarily for the modernization and rehabilitation

E.ON in the future The consolidated turnover of E.ON companies in Romania was 4.9 billion lei (about 1.1 billion euros) in 2015, close to the figures of 2014. The volumes of traded natural gas and electricity amounted to 28.4 TWh. The forecasts for this year’s turnover suggest a slight increase compared to 2015. Natural gas - Last year 160 million lei were invested (36 million euros), the distribution system being rehabilitated and upgraded over a length of 450 kilometres and extended over a length of 150 kilometres. For 2016 over 190 million lei have been budgeted (43 million euros), the main objectives being the modernization of about 500 kilometres of pipes and tubes and the expansion of the distribution system by 150 kilometres. Electricity - The value of the investments amounted, in 2015, to 240 million lei (54 million euros), the biggest since we took over the distribution of electricity in the Moldova area in 2005. The main objectives envisaged were the implementation of SCADA, smart metering, the modernization of certain transformation stations, or rehabilitating and securing power networks, particularly those of low voltage. For the current year, the envisaged investments are at a level close to that of the previous year. SCADA projects and smart metering 114 transformation stations in Moldova, out of a total of 133, are already integrated (partially or totally) in the SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), and the plans for the next two years target the integration of 13 more stations, the

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objective of the project being to increase security in the energy supply process. The company’s medium- and long-term programs provide for allocation, by the year 2020, of 18 million euros for investment in the automation of distribution networks, both at the transformation stations and in the medium voltage networks. The company has installed about 177,000 smart counters at the consumers, of which about 147,000 units were fitted in 2015 alone. This year another 55,000 smart meters are to be installed. The investment budgeted for this purpose for the period 2014-2016 amounts to approx. 20 million euros. Mobile application for the platform E.ON Myline E.ON Myline platform, which includes more than 600,000 users at present, was developed with new functions that allow customers to communicate with specialized agents, to quickly access information concerning the bill, and also to check the consumption history. At this point, an application for mobile phones is under development. It will become functional this autumn and will grant direct access to E.ON Myline, including for paying the bill in the case of customers who have opted for an electronic invoice. Currently there are about 220,000 such customers. At the same time, to support customer who receive an electronic invoice but prefer to make cash payments, E.ON provides, as of January this year, cards that include data concerning the client code, the bar codes and that facilitate the payment of the invoice without the need for printing the document.

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GAS of the natural gas and electricity networks. The natural gas network has been modernized (replacing pipes and ensuring cathodic protection) over a length of almost 6,350 kilometres and has been extended over a length of approx. 1,250 km. With regard to the electricity network, it has been modernized and revitalized on a length of about 2,700 km, extended over a length of more than 1,100 kilometres with a view of connecting new consumers to it, and 2,550 transformation posts have been replaced or upgraded. The effects of these investments have been confirmed even by ANRE in a report on the quality of the energy distribution service, which outlines a general improvement in this respect. In addition, as confirmed by the Ministry of Energy, not only have we fulfilled the investment objectives we assumed when we took over the two former distributions from the State, but we have exceeded them. At the same time, we have been good tax payers contributing to the State budget, as attested by the approx. 1.4 billion euros paid to the budget as fees and taxes. Thus, thanks to these achievements and the progress we have made, E.ON Romania is now one of the most important Regional Units within the E.ON Group, alongside Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Which are the company’s strategy and objectives for the following period? We are already at the stage of developing ambitious projects for supplying products and services that are tailored to the needs of the customers and, moreover, in line with the current requirements and challenges. We started from an organization that would bring us closer to the customer, to reconceive and continuously improve processes. For every market segment we are developing commercial offers that suit the needs of the consumers, at fair prices on a competitive market, under transparent and balanced contractual terms. We are also providing commercial consulting services in support of effective, lasting collaborative relationships. Furthermore, we offer our customers a complete package of services and we do not want to provide “just” energy and gas. The offer includes energy efficiency solutions and services for interior installations,

etc. For example, the energy audit that issues optimized balance sheets of energy consumption, in order to eliminate energy waste, is one of the services offered by E.ON. E.ON Data is an instrument that leads to optimizing the functionality of equipment and the efficiency of expenditures, monitoring energy consumption. Thermography enables us to prevent the breakdown of electrical equipment and detects heat loss. We believe that this will

make life easier for our clients and we will help us develop a solid and reliable partnership with them. We will continue to look for solutions for our customers, offering flexible products customized to specific consumer needs, and to develop projects for the communities where we believe the municipalities can be our partners. Basically, we want to add more services to your portfolio, so as to become a “one stop shop” for the customers we serve. 47


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ROMGAZ COMPANY OVERVIEW Romgaz is the largest natural gas producer and the main supplier in Romania. With a history longer than a century, Romgaz is today a company listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange and GDRs are transacted on London Stock Exchange. Having the revenue close to 1 billion euros in 2015, and the profit nearly 270 million euros, Romgaz continues to be a hot opportunity for the investors. Look at the figures on the next pages and try to deny that! 49


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OIL

RETHINKING STRATEGIES IN THE OIL DOMAIN Romania has an experience of over 150 years in the oil industry, but in recent years and in the decades to come it has to cope with declining natural resources. The production national crude oil in 2015 was 3,813 thousand tonnes. Although faced with a natural decline of production, Romania continues to remain the fourth crude oil producing country in the European Union (EU) and, respectively, the fifth country in Europe (including Norway). In term of the production at European level, the national crude oil production accounts for about 2% of the production of Europe and about 6% of that of the EU. On a commercial level, given the extremely low prices for a barrel of oil, below 40 dollars over the past year, large companies operating in Romania on the upstream sector, midstream and downstream sector are rethinking their strategies. The issue of the price per barrel is added to the other problems that are affecting the sector - unpredictability, overcharging, political instability.

The analysis of the current status of the energy sector, developed by the Ministry of Energy, as a preparatory document for Romania’s Energy Strategy, shows that primarily due to natural decline of crude oil and natural gas deposits, but also in order to reduce the volume of exploration and investment works, the annual output of crude oil has decreased, reaching 3.8 million tonnes of crude oil in 2015. Currently in Romania, 432 oil and natural gas deposits are being exploited, of which there are: 240 commercial oil and natural gas deposits, with approximately 9,400 oil wells and 800 natural gas wells, for which petroleum agreements are held by OMV Petrom. Other 39 deposits for which oil exploitation and development agreements were concluded have different companies as holders. According to the data included in the ANRM records, in early 2016, the situation of geological resources and crude and condensate oil reserves was as follows: geological resources - 2,203.979 million tonnes, proven reserves 38.678 million tonnes, probable reserves 9.237 million tonnes, possible reserves 10.620 tonnesI. In the circumstances of a steady annual decline of safe reserves by 5% and a rate of replacement of 5% for the reserves of crude and condensate oil, given the average annual production of recent years (3.8 million tonnes), we can surmise that Romania’ current oil reserves will be exhausted in about 20 years. This is a short period, in which the operation of

probable and possible reserves must take place, by making the necessary investments (new probes, the probes etc.). In the medium and long run, projects for the exploration of deep zones (3,000 m) must be developed, those onshore with a complicated geology and the offshore zones in the Black Sea, particularly the area of deep water (1,000 m).

Declining production In the past five years, domestic production of crude oil has seen a steady decline of 2%, while forecasts for the next five years are that the overall decline will continue. Limiting the decline to 2% was achieved through significant investments in order to

maintain as high as possible a level of production - excavations for new probes, repair work and resumed production, withdrawals/additions, investments regarding the application of secondary recovery processes, etc. In 2014, according to the data of the National Institute of Statistics published in 2015, national consumption in Romania was 11.124 thousand tonnes of crude oil. More than half of the necessary was provided by imports - 7,071 thousand tonnes, the difference being secured from domestic production, according to data of the National Agency for Mineral Resources. In 2015, according to the same sources, the national production of crude oil was 3,813 thousand tonnes. In 2014, the 59


OIL

Hamza Karimov, CEO SOCAR Romania

total deliveries of oil products on the domestic market were 8,559 thousand tonnes, the demand being influenced by the evolution of the price, the expected increase in the number of cars per capita, Romania being currently below the European average, the development of the infrastructure for fuelling transport vehicles with alternative sources of energy (e.g. electricity), the development and modernization of the road infrastructure.

CONPET, a monopoly on transportation The Romanian state has a monopoly on the network of pipelines and the national system of crude oil transport, just like in the case of the natural gas or electricity carrier. CONPET SA Ploiești is the operator of the crude oil National Transport System, a company in which the state holds a participation of 58.7162% through the Ministry of Energy. CONPET operates 3800 km of pipelines with a transportation capacity of 27.5 million tonnes/ year. The transportation network is structured into four main subsystems: the subsystem of crude oil internal transport, with a length of 1,540 km and a capacity of 6.9 million tonnes/year, the transport subsystem of imported crude oil, with a length of 1,350 km and a capacity of 20.2 million tonnes/year, the gasoline and ethane transport subsystem, with a length of 920 km and a capacity of 230,000 tonnes of gasoline/year and 100,000 tonnes of ethane /year for, the rail transport subsystem, with rail tankers. The main clients of CONPET are OMV Petrom, Lukoil and Rompetrol Refinery. 60

Kinga Daradics, CEO & Country Chairman, Mol Romania

Two terminals for petroleum products There are two oil terminals operating in Romania: one owned mostly by the Romanian State, while the other was developed by a private company – RompetrolKazMunaiGaz (KMG). Oil Terminal Constanța, an exchange-listed company in which the State is the majority shareholder (59.62% of shares), holds one of the largest oil terminals in South-Eastern Europe, with a maximum capacity of 24 million tonnes of crude oil per year, as it is stated in the same document issued by the Ministry of Energy, which emphasizes that the company occupies a strategic position in the Black Sea area by being the largest operator at sea specialized in conveying crude oil, petroleum products and liquid petrochemicals, as well as other products and raw materials, for the purpose of import, export and transit. The advantages include access to road and railway communication, three large warehouses, equipped with tanks in which petroleum products are traded, with a total storage capacity of 1,700,000 mc, loading/unloading capacities for petroleum and chemical products by the railroads, over a total length of 30 km, and transport pipelines for loading/ unloading petroleum products and chemicals. Oil Terminal holds seven operative berths, which allow the berthing of ships with a capacity up to 165,000 tdw. The Midia Marine Terminal (Rompetrol - KMG) is a private investment of $ 175 million, located

at 8.6 km away from the shore, and it has a capacity of 24 million tonnes/ year, being capable of receiving up to 160,000 dwt freight carriers. The Midia Marine Terminal is connected to the tanks of the Petromidia refinery whose total capacity is 400,000 mc. Rompetrol has also completed an investment program of $ 27 million for increasing the transit capacity for oil products through the port of Midia. In December 2015, KMG International (Kazakhstan) signed in Beijing, a series of agreements concerning the acquisition of a 51% participation of KMG International to China Energy Company (CEFC), these agreements including the assets of KMG in Romania. The estimated date for the completion of the transaction is October.

4 functional refineries Romania holds the largest installed refinery capacity in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), the main refineries of the country having a high complexity index. Of the 10 existing refineries in Romania, four were in operation at the beginning of 2014, respectively: Petrobrazi Ploieşti-owned by OMV Petrom, Petrotel Lukoil Ploieşti, Petromidia Navodari-Rompetrol Refinery (Kazmunaygas International), Vega Ploieşti - Rompetrol SA Bucureşti (Kazmunaygas International). Despite a reduction in the number of operational refineries, Romania continues to have an oil processing overcapacity in relation to the demand for refined products on the internal market, namely 286.27 thousand barrels/day compared to 284.69 thousand barrels/day in 2014, according to IHS Cera (2015). WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


OIL

Mariana Gheorghe, CEO OMV Petrom

Petrobrazi Ploiești Refinery processes mainly Romanian oil, OMV Petrom being the only integrated producer of crude oil and natural gas in Romania, and Petromidia and Petrotel rely in their activity on imported crude oil. Vega Ploieşti Refinery processes secondary oil materials, being the sole producer of a number of specific products, including organic solvents, ecological petroleum solvents and other oil-derived products (naphtha, white-spirit, light oil fuel) and bitumen (road bitumen, polymer modified bitumen or special bitumen). Petroleum products are traded freely, through direct bargaining, at auctions, or on the Romanian Stock Exchange (BRM).

OMV Petrom, recovery strategy For OMV Petrom, the only integrated producer of crude oil and natural gas in Romania, 2015 was not an easy year, the company reporting net losses of 676 million lei, after years of record profits. The company has been affected by the price per barrel, so for this year, the budget was built on an estimate of the price of 40 dollars per barrel. The results of 2015 prompted the company to review its strategy and seek new opportunities to streamline its business. One of its intentions relates to potential new investments for the Petrobrazi refinery. “We will continue to invest in production over the next five years in order to maintain the current capacity, which is now around 300 thousand barrels a day. Romania and Austria ensure two-thirds of this production, so a large part of the investment will

Azamat Zhangulov, VIce President KMG International

come to Romania. (...) “Romania is an attractive market for OMV, there is no intention to sell assets from Romania, the Brazi power plant is part of an integrated business and we do not take into account selling it”, said Rainer Seele, the new CEO of OMV. Predictability remains, however, a problem in the area of investment. Also, another problem is establishing new royalties for the crude oil. On the downstream segment, OMV Petrom opened another 8 stops on the highway last year.

Petromidia aims for profit in 2016 too The majority shareholder of Petromidia, Kazmunaygas (KMG), has invested more than 1.4 billion dollars in the refinery, while the estimated investment plan will have the same rate of growth. And the answer seems to go without saying, since the refinery had a profit in 2015, due to market and investment and the human factor, a trend that the representatives of the company want to maintain in 2016. In retail terms, however, the evolution is not as positive, KMG International opening just 5 new stations, but this year it plans to unveil a number that is 3 times higher. The Dolphin project, whose second phase will begin in 2016, has contributed with a few million dollars to the profitability of refineries. Signals that investments will continue have also been given by the Chinese from CEFC, who signed an agreement, on 7 April 2016, with the owner of the exgroup Rompetrol, KMG, for the takeover of 51% of the shares,

through a joint venture. “Over the next five years, at least $ 3 billion will be invested in projects in line with the company’s strategic targets. KMGI will continue to receive support from the Government of Kazakhstan and KMG, the latter promising to provide at least 125 million tonnes of crude oil for KMGI in the next 15 years after purchase”, according to a press release of the Chinese company.

Who evolves in the downstream sector? The fuel market, estimated at 10 billion euros, is dominated by OMV Petrom, which has over 540 stations. Up to 2,000 stations, the top is completed by Rompetrol, Lukoil, MOL Romania, SOCAR, GAZPROM and other smallersize business. Among the events that deserve mentioning on the market is last year’s acquisition, in February, of MOL by a competitor - the AGIP network from ENI, with a network of 200 stations. In 2015, MOL opened 7 stations, of which six on the freeway. By February 2016, MOL had added three more stations to its portfolio and planned the opening of another 11. On the local market, the evolution of Țiriac Energy will be interesting to follow. It is a company that is taking advantage of a downstream niche segment, by developing a new operational business with do-it-yourself charging outlets in well-developed shopping areas, in the rural area or in areas destined for heavy vehicles. The proposed objective of the company is to open200 power stations, in the next 3-5 years. 61


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ENERGOBIT IS READY TO BECOME AN IMPORTANT PLAYER IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE Mrs. Carmen Neagu, CEO of EnergoBit, is analysing here the present of national and regional energy sector and is revealing her plans for the company in the years to come. The main target would be increasing the exports, by finding new partners, starting in Eastern and Central Europe.

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ear Mrs. Neagu, you have a comprehensive experience and an insight into what the energy industry in Romania means. How would you define, in short, the sector today? Like any other field, the Romanian energy sector can be characterized by its strengths and weaknesses. I prefer to refer first to the positive aspects that define the sector, and I would like to mention that Romania is very well positioned having the 3rd place in EU in terms of resources independency and also, the Romanian electricity system is very well interconnected with the neighboring countries. Another advantage Romania has in this sector is the diversity of the energy sources, including more than 20% of the total energy production produced from renewable sources: hydro, wind and solar. Here, in renewable development I like to believe that EnergoBit also contributed by participating in the most important wind and photovoltaic projects from the country. The areas where improvements are needed for a better performance of the energy sector are also very important, and I will emphasize again the need for long term, predictable, consistent strategy and legislative framework, that allow players on the market to bring to terms their investment plans. Another potential positive impact on the energy industry could be represented by a more reliable and transparent support for energy efficiency projects, especially for a consistent mechanism for finding investment resources to achieve them. At European level there are numerous regulations regarding this aspect, but, in Romania, the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive stopped at the level of solutions to provide the necessary funds, and without such solutions is hard to find financing for such projects. As regards energy, Romania until recently seemed an oasis of 62

opportunities for foreign investors. What’s left of this image and how important is the external and domestic capital in this sector? This image of Romania is primarily dependent of the legal consistency previously mentioned. As in any sector, the contribution of foreign capital in the industry is extremely important and could support the modernization and streamlining of the national energy system. In this regard, however, our recent history and problems encountered by renewable energy producers does not help us and also affected other areas, the Romanian state lost its credibility in front of the foreign investors. How do you see, in general, from the point of view of the energy sector, the regional and global context of Romania and local companies? Concerning energy, Romania has a pretty good position compared to other countries in the region and even in Europe. As we have mentioned, Romania degree of energy independency in terms of energy resources is pretty high. The energy share from renewable resources is between 20%-25% of the final consumption, above the average EU level of 15%. Romania is a net exporter of electricity to other countries in the region, but a more developed generation capacity and infrastructure would allow us to export larger quantities at lower costs. Regarding the players on the Romanian market, I consider the presence of international brands as Enel, E.ON, CEZ, Engie, and many others in the oil & gas segment, puts emphasis on the attractiveness of this sector and its position at regional and global level. For several months, you are running EnergoBit SA, one of the most successful businesses in the Energy sector, started after 1990. Who is EnergoBit and why is a major player in this market?

EnergoBit is one of the few companies in Romania which supported its organic growth, since its foundation in 1990, exclusively through domestic capital, at least until 2013. The story of EnergoBit began from electrical engineering services and has reached the point where the company can offer turnkey solutions in the field of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity and also for industrial customers. From 3 associates when it was established, the company has grown to around 800 employees, covering the whole territory of the country, providing services that millions of end users are benefitting of in Oltenia, Moldova, Dobrogea and Bucharest. EnergoBit is also related to the biggest onshore wind farm from South-Est Europe, of 600 MW at Fântânele Cogealac, the company also being one of the largest constructors of renewable energy projects, with over 2,000 MW installed. With a turnover of around 85 million euro in 2015 and major projects in the segments of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity, in the industrial and infrastructure sector, EnergoBit has proven capabilities in over 25 years of existence. Of course all these achievements would not have occurred without the attention given to the company’s customers and their needs. What are the main products and services offered by EnergoBit? Do you consider diversifying it on short and medium term? EnergoBit offers the complete (end to end) solution in electricity, from audit, design, production of high quality equipment (medium and low voltage power transformers with low and extra-low losses, medium voltage cells, transformer substations and low voltage distribution equipment), construction, installation and entrepreneurship, to interior and exterior lighting, maintenance and operation services. Regarding the diversification of our offer, WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COMPANY PROFILE we always want to bring new products and services on the market, in order to better differentiate ourselves from our competitors. The production facilities of the company have an important place in the company’s organization and this segment also has great potential for development. Just as a simple example, we’ve launched the first oil-insulated distribution transformers in 2013 and we already made two upgrades to the product to reduce losses in line with the new efficiency requirements. Currently we are working on the development of new products we want to launch this year, but we will announce it when the time comes. Please, list us some important works made by EnergoBit last year. Among the major projects completed last year by EnergoBit we should mention the Biogas Cogeneration Station in Tulcea County, a Photovoltaic Park in Iasi, Miroslava, and the Wind Park in Babadag, Tulcea. These investments reached a value of several million euros. The Co-generation Station in Tulcea is a project of high efficiency that produces energy from biogas obtained through the fermentation of organic animal and vegetable waste. The thermal energy produced by the station is provided to the slaughterhouse near the station. The photovoltaic park in Miroslava is the first project of its kind in Romania, because of the two axes tracking system it uses. This technology allows the rotation of the photovoltaic panels depending on the position of the sun, maximizing the energy production. The park provides power supply for the public lighting system of the commune, but also for schools, kindergartens, the City Hall and other local public institutions. EnergoBit is also implementing various projects of maintenance and construction for the most important operators of transmission and distribution networks of electricity in Romania and abroad. How the target costumers of the company look like? We will continue to focus on obtaining contracts with companies from the transport, distribution and power generation segments. We also pay a special attention to the industrial services, where we want to diversify costumers we serve and to increase their number as much as possible. In this sense we develop partnerships with companies from related fields to offer turnkey solutions. We pay attention also to the international market, in Romania’s

neighboring countries, where investments in electrical installations for generation, transmission and distribution of electricity are developing, and of which we want to take advantage in the future. At this moment, what is the ratio of local and international customers? The majority of EnergoBit’s costumers are companies operating in Romania. Out of our portfolio of customers, today, 90% are companies present on the Romanian market. Is there a strategic orientation of the company concerning the international market? Which are the targeted areas of the world and what kind of actions you have taken so far? Internationally, we consider both specific projects and also developing a constant presence mainly in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East and in perspective, North Africa. The business areas we are focusing are transport and distribution, power generation, where, the experience gained in renewable energy projects in which the company was involved, we believe is an important asset. We also want to start exporting our products on the West European market, besides the already mentioned regions. We continue to participate in tenders on markets where we already completed projects, like Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Moldova and Macedonia (FYROM), and in the same time pursue any other development opportunities in the already mentioned geographical areas. What EnergoBit needs in order to become a major player on the international market?

EnergoBit needs to pay more attention to the markets of the targeted countries/regions and starts doing this by closing partnerships with local companies. Such partnerships will help us to participate in more tenders and better identify and understand each local market and the needs of the potential customers. I consider that we are a reliable company which can cope with all the demands of the customers, no matter if they are from the industrial segment or from the energy transport, distribution or generation fields. What chance other Romanian companies have to exit to the foreign market? What are the main factors on which this orientation towards exports depends? In order to have results on the international market, a company needs experience in dealing with complex projects, needs to be trustworthy and have financial power in order to support the involvement in works for which the financing could be delayed. In short, if a company is trustworthy and is determined to enter the international market, it will find the way to succeed. Nevertheless, a better structured vision within the Romania’s economic strategy to support Romanian companies export, would be welcomed. Where do you see EnergoBit in 10 years, if your development strategy will prove to be correct? My personal objective, stated since my arrival at EnergoBit, is to turn it into an important player in Central and Eastern Europe energy segment. There is a lot of work to be done, but I’m sure we will succeed to do this in much less than 10 years. 63


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EnergoBit, taming electricity

MORE THAN 5,000 ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT ARE PRODUCED YEARLY IN THE ENERGOBIT PLANT IN CLUJ T

here is a lot to be said about the equipment production within EnergoBit, with a tradition of more than 20 years, having served hundreds of customers, from small entrepreneurial businesses to large scale companies with complex demands and power providers which cover the entire Romanian territory. About 10 million power consumers (residential and industrial) in Romania, from Electrica Distribution, ENEL Distribution, CEZ Distribution and E.ON Moldova Distribution, benefit of the equipment and services provided by EnergoBit. These figures are impressive, but considered normal for a company with EnergoBit’s history and tradition, which was established in 1990. Having all these in mind, a visit within the production facilities in Cluj would reveal an important piece of the electrical power industry. Established as an electrical engineering company, EnergoBit orientation towards manufacturing electric equipment began in 1994 with the production of low voltage and automation panels, with a few 64

employees and a small production space of just 12 square meters. The company developed rapidly and, more than 20 year later, it covers an extensive portfolio of electrical equipment for medium and low voltages. Nowadays, EnergoBit has two factories of more than 9,000 square meters located in Cluj and Salaj counties where about 200 employees are involved in the production activity. In the last 15 years, the production capacity of EnergoBit increased by at least 10 times, in terms of resources, while the production surface increased by 18 times, with the ability of manufacturing equipment according to the latest standards and regulations. More than 50,000 electrical pieces of equipment were made in the Cluj factory in the last 15 years, since the set-up of the factory. During our short visit in the Cluj factory we found out that the number of indirect beneficiaries of the EnergoBit products and services is huge. Public institutions like Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca Airport, Heart Institute Cluj-Napoca, fuel stations networks like, Petrom,

Mol, OMV, Rompetrol, financial institutions like BNR, BCR, BRD Societe Generale are all using EnergoBit manufactured equipment. The cable transportation installation from Poiana Brasov relays also on the work of the engineers and electricians from Cluj. Important names from the industrial sector, like Automobile Dacia Pitesti, Michelin, European Drinks and Food, Holcim and many others are also using electrical equipment manufactured in this factory. The power transportation and distribution companies are traditional customers for the company which gathers about 800 employees all over the country. The factory in Cluj produces all sorts of electric equipment, from low voltage distribution panels to protection and automation panels, medium voltage switchgears and distribution transformers. All these are used both by the specialized electric power producers, transporters and distributors, as well as by companies from market segments like automotive, food, retail, telecom, travel, construction or heavy industry WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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and many others. In general, wherever there is a power consumption, electric equipment like the ones manufactured by EnergoBit is needed. Starting with 2013, the factory in Cluj produces one of the most modern and efficient distribution transformers on the market, in accordance with the latest EU Directive and standards. The ECO –T range of oil-insulated transformers are now two times more efficient than the ones produced in 2012, decreasing the power losses by 40% compared to the technology used four years ago. This model was first released in 2013 and has gone through two updates since then, in terms of design, technology, losses reduction. Each new version of the transformer diminished the power losses by 10 to 15%. The ECO –T distribution transformers can operate with a power of up to 24 kV, on a frequency of 50Hz, indoor or outdoor, and can support humidity of 100%, and ice layers of 40 millimeters. Depending on the capacity and the complexity of its customization, the production of such a distribution transformer

may take up to 48 hours. Afterwards, a team of 4 engineers are in charge with testing the parameters of each piece of equipment before leaving the assembly line. They are running about 15 tests to make sure the functioning standards are met. The lifetime of such equipment is of 30 years. The medium voltage switchgear range MOD24MC, also produced by EnergoBit in Cluj, are designed to be used in power generation stations, electrical substations and suitable to provide protection and control for motors, capacitors and transformers. The equipment is also suitable to be used for applications in industry, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure and residential, airports, water treatment plants. Its production time varies according to its capacity and destination. The low voltage distribution panels, automation and protection panels are essential elements for the continuity of power supply. These are also produced in Cluj. Such equipment also runs the transfer from the main network supply to a backup source

that can be either another network or a generating set. The panels are crucial in installations with continuous power flow, in hospitals or public institutions of national interest, or in areas where there are problems with the electricity supply. Only in the last four years EnergoBit invested more than 3 million Euros in the modernization of its production facilities from Cluj. The upgrade of the factory will also continue in the years to come, as equipment production is one of the main advantages EnergoBit has in comparison with other providers of electric energy services. Through its manufacturing activities, the company secured an important position on the local market, but has also served companies from abroad, playing a major role in its export strategy. Besides previously mentioned companies in Romania, the EnergoBit equipment is also used in countries like Hungary, Bulgaria, Albania, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ghana, and the focus on export is in its early stages. 65


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IN ROMANIA COMPANIES THAT EXPLOIT AND CAPITALIZE ON COAL ARE REDEFINING THEMSELVES In the long run, hard times are comming for coal and its use as a resource in the energy sector. The signing of the Paris Agreement in regard to maintaining maximum global temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius and, thus, reducing the effects of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions have rekindled discussions on the use of coal in industry. According to the experts, the use of coal generates 90% of the climate harming greenhouse gas emissions, in countries like the United States of America or China. Amid decreasing lignite production by 32% and pit coal production by 13%, in the last three years national coal production was reduced by 31%. 66

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n recent years, coal has reached a market share of almost 30% of the global energy mix, but forecasts, after COP21 summit, in Paris are, mostly in Europe, phasing out its use. According to the International Energy Agency, by policies to encourage electricity production, especially from renewable sources, coal consumption is projected to decline by a third by 2040 in the European Union. On the other hand, according to other forecasts included in the analysis made by the Romanian Ministry of Energy, coal could continue to play an important role in the European energy mix up to 2050, provided there will be a development of technologies for CO2 capture and storage. Coal, hereinafter, the dirtiest fossil fuel, remains a valuable resource for the Romanian energy market, especially during periods in which renewable energy, subsidized or not, cannot be ensured. Therefore, no Minister of Energy ever undertook giving up this resource. Moreover, mining and the use of coal for producing energy seem to have the future. The current Minister of Energy, Victor Grigorescu, did not avoid the subject matter, but he gave a signal that companies which exploit coal and use it in their own power plants, must be redefined. We’re talking Oltenia Energy Complex and Hunedoara Energy Complex, both of the companies are in a continuous transformation for a few years in search of the light of profit at the end of the tunel.

tunels, and by the surface surface constructions at all four mines. Processing coal, extracted from underground to comply with the quality parameters, as well as achieving sorts requested by beneficiaries, takes place within a processing plant. The plant is functioning on the premises of Coal Preparation „Jiu Valley” Vulcan bias point and is equipped with a modern facility commissioned in 2004, which complies with the European environmental protection standards. Transportation, of coal extracted from workstations, to the power plants is done with the existing railway wagons, the equipment inbodies 10 locomotives and 43 km ok railway. Since January, Hunedoara Energy Complex is insolvent, it went through a failed restructuring

Hunedoara Energy Complex’s insolvency

process, which included layoffs. The company has about 6,000 employees in Livezeni, Lupeni, Lonea and Vulcan mining plants and in Mintia and Paroşeni power plants. „The first prerequisite for Hunedoara was it’s role in the national energy system. As you know, Hunedoara is located at a knot of the energy system, in an area where we have very few manufacturers. Basically, Hunedoara helps to decongest the National Energy System, injecting energy to the northern part of the country, instead of transporting to Transylvania all of the energy from the large production centers in the suthern part. And this is the first thing we have to understand,

According to the latest analysis of this sector, updated earlier this year and upgraded after working sessions on Pit Coal and Lignite of the Mining Activity Coordination Committee, founded this year in March, within the Ministry of Energy, most deposits of pit coal, in Romania, are concentrated in the Jiu Valley coalbasin, average calorific value of the certain reserve is of 3,650 kcal/kg. Pit coal deposits are exploited by Mining Division of Hunedoara Energy Complex which has over 87.927 meters of underground mining

why the issues of Hunedoara Energy Complex is not a social issue, as discussed in all these years, but a system security issue. You probably know that the 400 kV ring of Transelectrica is not completed yet, it is a long-term project, this ring will be finished, probaby, in the first part of the next decade. However, pending completion of these complex works, Deva and Paroşeni groups continue to have an important role in balancing and decongestion of the network, these are important including to allow network modernizations. (...) In conclusion, we need two energy groups, one in Paroşeni and one in Deva. The estimate is that these two groups could secure together 400 MW and these groups should be associated with two mines, those two mines that we identified as being viable from the four that

According to the International Energy Agency, by policies to encourage electricity production, especially from renewable sources, coal consumption is projected to decline by a third by 2040 in the European Union.

now operate” said Minister Victor Grigorescu on the situation of Hunedoara Energy Complex. The two viable mines that he referred to are are Livezeni and Vulcan, therefore Lupeni and Lonea and would start a closure program, a program that already exists in the Jiu Valley and is authorized by the European Commission.

Oltenia Energy Complex’s reorganization Most of the sure reserves of lignite (95%) are in Oltenia Mining Basin (Dolj, Gorj, Mehedinţi and Vâlcea counties), the caloric content of 67


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the sure reserves being between 1,650 and 1,950 kcal/kg, with an average of 1,800 kcal/kg. Lignite deposits in operation have reserves of 400 million tons. Licensed lignite reserves can ensure their efficient operation for another 15 years, at a production level of approximately 30 million tons/year. The main producer of lignite in Romania is Branch Mining Division Târgu Jiu, belonging to Oltenia Energy Complex – 97.7% of national output in 2014 – secures all of the necessary lignite for Rovinari, Turceni, Craiova şi Işalniţa thermal plants and, CHP plant Halânga, CHP plant Govora, CHP plant Arad, CHP plant Oradea, CHP plant Timisoara, COLTERM, UATA Motru and public institutions and households in the region. Branch Mining Division Târgu Jiu performing the extraction of lignite in 12 pits through continuous extraction technologies, plus an underground mining perimeter. The use of infrastructure in the lignite sector is decreased due 68

to under-utilization of the high capacity equipment. The recorded lignite production of Oltenia Energy Complex in 2015 was 22,405,180 tons of coal. The Oltenia Energy Complex’s activity is undergoing a reorganization, restructuring and streamlining process. According to a recent company press release, in this plan includes a series of financialy quintified measures for production costs cut-back, for the 2016-2020 period, in order for the price to be placed in the forecasted value, including giving up some related services such as hotel services, canteens, laundry, which helped reduce total costs in the first quarter of this year by 14% compared to the same period of the earlier year, reducing the unit price per ton of lignite by 5.6% and, reduce the unit production price of one MWh by 0.9%. Regarding Oltenia Energy Complex, Corina Popescu, State Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and coordinator of the Committee for mining, said „... it is a solid company with perspectives, but that was

been managed chaotically and with visible diversion from its primordial purpose, that of being an integral part of national energy security system. Although visible attempts are made for restructuring, I think there still is a lot of work to do and I hope we will soon see results and tangible effects. I wish that those who manage Oltenia Energy Complex will understand their responsibilities and, that there are no miracle solutions offered to them by leaders from the center. It takes a lot of hard work and determination. And I, also, think tht there is a need for assuming personal management act. The Mining Activity Coordination Committee plays a decisive role in this process, but I can not hide my disappointment when I see the pace at which the management of Oltenia Energy Complex moves. We will meet next week too and hopefully until the next meeting we will see the determination that is needed.„ An answer regarding coal and electricity production is expected in the National Energy Strategy. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COAL Laurentiu Ciobotarica, Finance Division Director of The Oltenia Energy Complex

“CE OLTENIA CAN BE A REGIONAL - EUROPEAN SCALE PRODUCER” “We believe that, in Romania, there will be a market for coal in the long term, so as to maintain the system’s energy security and the continuous supply of energy to consumers” - says Laurentiu Ciobotarica, Finance Division Director of The Oltenia Energy Complex, in an interview for Energy Mirror of Romania.

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ords in the energy sector claim that the country’s energy situation, in particular as regards resources, is as difficult as it was in the Romans’ times (gold and salt). Today oil, gas and coal are at stake. From your perspective, what does the future of the Romanian energy industry and of Romanian resources look like? As long as there are conventional energy producers who can function regardless of the atmospheric conditions, Romania’s medium and long-term energy security is ensured, and an energy strategy must aim to secure the electricity supply to consumers. Given the random operation of other producers, coalbased energy is vital for the stability of SEN, and its future depends on the national energy strategy, which will have to be developed according to the constraints imposed by the European legislation, but it must be kept in mind that due to the geographical areas in which Romania is situated, there can be no similarity between the quota of power generation capacities in all these countries. Romania cannot be compared with the Nordic countries. We believe that, in Romania, there will be a market for coal in the long term, so as to maintain the system’s energy security and the continuous supply of energy to consumers. The Oltenia Energy Complex has evolved, in recent years, on a market that has suffered because of the lack of predictability, excessive taxation and other external factors impacting it negatively. What impact have these external factors had on the company’s financial results? The general context with major influences on the activity of CE Oltenia pertains to the climate change and the new targets for reducing the

emissions of greenhouse gases. Related to the energy needs of our country and the resources at its disposal, the coal producers’ obligation to ensure system balance brings substantial cost increases caused by frequent stops/ starts (an increase in costs by about 20% due to the reduction of yields and aggregate wear and tear, CE Oltenia registering load variations of up to 1000 MW on days with gusts

cost of a MWh. For 2015, CE Oltenia acquired green certificates worth 23.6 million lei. Although, under the law, producers are exempt from the payment of the green certificates corresponding to the energy used for their own technological consumption, ANRE does not consider that the energy used by CE Oltenia in coal exploitation represents technological consumption for its own

of wind), which also lead to growing pollution in comparison with a linear operation (including by increasing CO2 emissions). A block start means costs of 300 thousands lei for the classical producers, not to mention the expenditures with the CO2 certificates, the wearing down of the equipment, etc. For example, the total sum paid by CE Oltenia for the purchase of greenhouse gas emission certificates, necessary for compliance in 2015, was 86.5 million euros, which represents a percentage of 18% of the

functioning. The big consumers of energy in Romania, except for CE Oltenia, have been exempt from purchasing considerable amounts of green certificates, and CE Oltenia is the third largest consumer of energy in Romania, after Alro Slatina and ArcelorMittal Galati. Other external factors that are not controllable by the company, depend on the sectorial policy in the field of energy and have considerable negative influences on the results of the 69


COAL company are the taxes introduced in 2013 (the tax on special constructions and the tax on income from the exploitation of natural resources); the tariff on the delivery of electricity into the network (TG), which does not have the same value for all the producers; the water used in the process of cooling the aggregates, paid by CE Oltenia at a price that is 4 times higher, because the contracts imposed by the “Romanian Waters” National Administration ignore the fact that the water is reused in Turceni, Isalnita and Craiova II, after it was used in Rovinari. Also, in accordance with the current regulations, a user/consumer of water pays at the same rate the service of ensuring the water collected and used for cooling, as if it were consumed entirely. However, power plants are basically users and not consumers of water, since approximately 95% of the captured raw water is cooling water, which fully returned in the emissary, cleaned and treated, the remaining 5% being the water that is actually consumed in the technological process. At the same time, the price paid by CE Oltenia for the cooling water is 24 times higher than that paid by Hidroelectrica, generating an unjustified growth of water costs and, thereby, an increase in the cost price/MWh. For example, the water expenses of CE Oltenia in 2015 amounted to 21 million lei. What is the impact of the pole tax and other special taxes on the cost of electricity production and, respectively, of the heat energy produced by the Oltenia Energy Complex? In addition to expenditure on purchasing CO2 certificates and green certificates, all the fees and taxes paid by the CE Oltenia amount to a rate of 3.5% of the cost of a MWh. What concrete measures have you undertaken to reduce operating expenses? Specifically, there has been a 20% decrease in consumptions of fuel oil, gas, water, energy, materials and spare parts; there has been a reduction by 16% of the services rendered by third parties and other related activities. Thus, in comparison with the same period of the previous year, we have registered a decrease in operating expenses by 11% and of our total expenditure by 14%. How has the management plan of the Oltenia Energy Complex been adapted to the market conditions of 2016, with 70

a projection towards 2020-2030, in terms of the diversification of services, the purchase of other production capacities, the implementation of new technologies, the retechnologization and modernization of production capacities, the gasification of coal, etc.? In the current situation there is no question of purchasing other production capacities, and the upgrading and modernization of production capacities is an on-going process. With regard to lignite gasification, a European project is underway. CE Oltenia is a partner in this project, along with other companies from Germany and Poland, and this will demonstrate whether this technological solution for the lignite in the Motru mining basin is feasible or not. What is your strategy regarding the project for the construction of a new energy group of 600 MW at the Rovinari Power Plant Branch. Will this project be further supported? In the case of an affirmative answer, what is the value of this investment, what funding sources have been identified, what will the investment entail and what will be the completion term? The project for the construction of a new 600 MW energy group at SE Rovinari will continue to be supported. The investment has been estimated to the amount of about 900 million euros. At the founding of PPI, the participation of CE Oltenia will be of about 9%, subsequently being possible for it to reach up to 49%. CE Oltenia will contribute with a limited set of assets. Examples: the remaining infrastructure, available and unused currently, after the removal from operation of a power of 400 MW (2x200 MW), the cold water supply infrastructure, crushing station no. 3, with the related facilities, the deposit of crushed coal –stack 3. According to the feasibility study, the new group will be a unit of high performance generation, using as fuel the lignite provided by the quarries from Rosia, Tismana and Pinoasa, belonging to CE Oltenia. The plant is equipped with the best available techniques for lowering dust emissions, NOx and SOx to comply with the regulations in force and to meet the demands for limiting emissions of pollutants. This new production capacity should replace the existing capacities in SEN, as their lifetime is expired and their technology belongs to the 1970s, being clearly out-dated.

The works of construction at the new power station of 1 x 600 MW will begin after obtaining construction permits. The estimated duration of the construction is 38 months. Huadian Oltenia Energy SA will have its headquarters in Rovinari. It will have about 250 employees. It is estimated that, during the period of project implementation, over 4,000 jobs will be created, and that the new energy group will use 4.6 million tonnes of coal annually, which will create 3,000 jobs. What are the energy groups that will be placed in conservation? The establishment of investment priorities and the identification of non-viable assets are based on an analysis of financial performance related to the necessity of maintaining safety in the operation of production capacities and complying with the limits imposed by the European legislation on the emission of pollutants into the air/ water/soil, but also the need to maintain the market share. At present, energy groups no. 1 and 2 – Chiscani are under conservation. We can estimate that group no. 8 – Isalnita will enter in conservation in 2018, while group no. 2 – Craiova in 2021. At CEO there were plans the launch of a “Primary Public Bid for sale of a package of 15% new shares, through capital increase”. Will this plan still be included in the company’s postrestructuring plan? The company’s listing is opportune, being subject to the completion of the reorganization plan, restructuring and increased efficiency, so that the company can be viable and profitable in the short and medium term, and that the indicators which determine the starting price (including the real value of the share) can be favourable. What is the situation of slag and cinder deposits? CE Oltenia pays particular attention to compliance with all the conditions imposed by the EU regarding compliance with environment limitations, which involves major financial efforts for the implementation of environmental impact reduction. With respect to the deposits of slag and cinder to which you are making reference, please note that all the energy groups of the branches of CE Oltenia have functional slag and cinder exhaust installations in dense slam. The first installation of this kind was put into operation in 2009. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COAL The technology is based on achieving a maximum optimum ratio of liquid/ solid mixture = 1/1, which represents the auto-solidifying dense slam for the evacuation of slag and ash. The impact obtained consists in an increase in the stability coefficient of the deposit, the cinder being fixed, rather than blown away by the wind, and the infiltration water being reduced quantitatively and environmentally friendly. If you were to build a bridge across time, what would be the pillars on which the Oltenia Energy Complex is relying at present? CE Oltenia is an integrated company of electricity production and mining exploitation. Having our own quarries, we can control the fuel costs in the share of the finished product –energy, coal representing a significant part of the cost per MWh (about 40%). In comparison with the leading producers on the Romanian market, CE Oltenia has a predictable activity (electricity production does not depend on atmospheric conditions), it offers safety in supplying consumers and produces energy at European standards by complying with the environmental requirements imposed by the EU. CE Oltenia can supply 30% of the electricity consumption in SEN and produces over 95% of Romanian lignite, with reserves for another 40 years. It also has a significant presence on the market of system technological services for the maintenance of security and the stability of SEN, under the conditions of the random operation of renewable energy producers. CE Oltenia can be a regional-European scale producer. We should mention the fact that during periods when the atmospheric conditions are not conducive to the operation of other producers, the services CE Oltenia can benefit even those who will do anything to stop the production of coal-based energy. In your opinion, what changes should be made to Law 123 and what fiscal barriers should be removed so as to contribute to the increase of profitability in the activity of the Oltenia Energy Complex? If these legislative and fiscal barriers were to be removed, how much electricity could be supplied by the Oltenia Energy Complex for export? What potential does the Oltenia Energy Complex have to produce more electricity for export? We believe that in to make the activity of CE Otenia more efficient, it would

be appropriate if Energy Law no. 123/2012 defined the safety of SEN and if Transelectrica and ANRE established which are the energy blocks that contribute to the safety of the energy system and provided them with system services. If producers were allowed to create a basket so as to ensure that the price for the consumer remains constant over a long period of time (currently, the price is set by the market, not taking production costs into account, enabling some of the producers to make very high profits, the others being at the limit of survival or even facing bankruptcy), this would increase the safety of contracts over long periods of time. In the category of “fiscal barriers”, besides the taxes to which I referred earlier, we can include the requirement to purchase green certificates even if CE Oltenia is the third largest producer in the country; the TG is different from one producer to another, even if energy is traded with an included TG (noncompetitional treatment, duly noted by the Competition Council); there is no rigorous law that allows fair value compensations for land expropriations necessary for continuing mining activities. Regarding export, CE Oltenia has potential in terms of production capacity, but in terms of the price, in the current organization, only Hidroelectrica and renewables can export. CE Oltenia has relentlessly advocated the need for reviewing primary and secondary legislation, foregrounding SEN safety and security. The Transelectrica forecast is that by 2020 we will reach an interconnection level of 10%. What will increased interconnections mean for the Oltenia Energy Complex? Increasing interconnection would lead to a growth in energy demand and an

increase in the share of CE Oltenia on the internal market. How have you managed maintenance costs at the Oltenia Energy Complex, given that current production capacities were built decades ago, and not all are in the process of retechnologizationmodernization? All viable capacities have been rehabilitated successively. The latest technologies have been implemented in terms of technological consumption and the limitations imposed by the environmental rules in force. Of course, following periodic checks, maintenance works are planned, being aimed at restoring the project parameters, and maintenance costs are managed so as to have a lower impact in the cost of a MWh. During the debates over the future of Romania’s Energy Strategy, one idea that was launched concerns the setting up in our country of two large companies, at most, for the production of electrical energy, in order for us to be competitive in this area of Europe. What is your stand on such an initiative? Would it be feasible and achievable? In our opinion, it is the only viable solution for the Romanian energy industry and it should be included in the energy strategy, taking into account the resources available to this country. What is your message about the energy industry and for the energy industry? Besides maintaining SEN security, an energy mix would ensure a lower price for the consumer and the long-term stability of prices. The immediately lowered prices of electric energy for the consumer could lead to Romania’s reindustrialization and to increasing energy consumption. 71


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Repcon, the top hydrotechnic constructor in Romania 4 23 years of experience in hydrotechnical systems and dam constructions 4 One of the biggest hydrotechnic works constructors in Romania 4 Author of some of the most important hydro works in the country 4 Almost 100 important hydrotechnical works in Romania, in all the areas of the country 4 Tens of million euro projects succesfully closed 4 The top specialist in prevention of big floods 4 Over 50 million m3 capacity for the dams executed so far 4 A team of 150 dedicated engineers & workers 72

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REPCON SA SPECIALISTS IN HYDRO WORKS AND DAMS FOR MORE THAN TWO DECADES With 23 years of experience in hydrotechnical systems and dam constructions, REPCON SA Oradea is one of the top Romanian companies in this industrial field. Along the years, REPCON has achieved some of the most important hydro works in the country and has also begun to participate in tenders for projects outside Romania. 74

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ehind this successful company is Manager Mircea Nistreanu, a hydrotechnical engineer with a career spanning four decades in his profession. “The most important asset I had when I started this company, in 1993, was my experience. I have been working in the field of water management since 1975”, as Mircea Nistreanu recounts. “I started my career in the city of Târgu Mureş, after graduating from the Faculty of Hydrotechnical Engineering. In 1984, I was assigned as site supervisor in Oradea, the city where I subsequently set up the company REPCON and where I have remained to this day”, he says. “The first thing I did in the company was to create a competitive and united team. This team has developed, becoming a genuine, well-knit family. It’s very difficult to find such dedicated people, with shared affinities, who can be loyal for such a long time to a trade and a business. For us, builders, our families are on the site, so it is important for a manager to

have a united team. Performance in this field requires sacrifices”, Nistreanu explains.

No.1 REPCON has accomplished almost 100 important hydrotechnical works in Romania, in all the areas of the country. Perhaps the best known is the constant accumulation at Suplacu de Barcău, Bihor County. Inaugurated in 2010, the dam at Suplacu de Barcău was built with funding from the State budget and the Council of Europe Development Bank. “This is the only large permanent water reservoir that was started and completed in Romania over the past 25 years”, Mircea Nistreanu says. The value of the work amounts to approximately 36 million euros. The accumulation, particularly complex, is located approximately 400 m upstream of the national road DN 19B, between Suplacu de Barcău and Porţ. One of its goals is to reduce the risk of f looding downstream, by alleviating

the maximum f lows in case of f lash f loods. At the same time, the accumulation ensures the supplementation of drinking and industrial water f low for the town of Marghita and the necessary drinking water supply for the centralized systems of rural localities, such as the communes Suplacu de Barcău, Balc, Abram and Abrămuţ. “In the event of a f lood, the dam can accumulate 15 million cubic metres of water”, REPCON engineers say. The work has an important cross-border dimension - given the proximity of the border with Hungary - both for reducing f lood effects and for limiting the transit of waste water along the course of the Barcău River. The dam has a length of 1,725 m, a height of 11 m and a width of 6 m. The accumulation covers an area of about 230 hectares.

Ginta Dam, a 46 million-euro project Another reference work of the REPCON Company is the 75


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transient accumulation at Ginta, on the Crişul Negru River, in Bihor County. In the aftermath of the f loods produced in the 1970s-80s, a series of hydrotechnical works were conducted, which ensured control of the high water levels for the lower

Main activities: • The design and execution of hydrotechnical construction works • Territory landscaping, land reclamation • Civil, industrial, agrozootechnical, road and bridge constructions • Hydrotechnical improvement, for telecommunications • Public works and urban management, underground pipelines, sewerage, water supply, waste water treatment plants • Works of art, installations, finishes, the assembly of technological equipment and machines • Transport services for aggregates, concrete • Quarry products • Car fleet repairs • Metalwork and woodwork

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basin of the Crişul Negru River in Romania. After the f loods produced in 2000-2002, when extensive damage occurred especially in the middle basin of the Crişul Negru, government experts proposed the establishment of a transient accumulation on this sector of the river. REPCON won the tender and started work. In 2011, when the dam threshold was reached at Ginta, the nonpermanent accumulation (polder) became functional. Within less than a year, REPCON started and completed consolidation works, along a length of 3.6 km, the five thresholds necessary for curbing

the flood wave, as well as other related works to the polder. The transient accumulation at Ginta has a capacity of 12 million cubic metres of water and a probability of 1%, meaning that the probability that this polder will be flooded is highest every one hundred years. The works, worth 46 million euros, were financed from the State budget and the Council of Europe Development Bank.

About REPCON and its people One of the few companies in Romania specialized in large-

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scale hydrotechnical operations, REPCON SA Oradea REPCON has overcome the economic crisis and executed works of about 24 million euros in 2015. The main project of REPCON last year was the hydrotechnical redevelopment of the Niraj River, in Mureş County - a project worth about 17 million euros. 40 years ago, in these places, on the River Mureş, the young engineer Nistreanu, a graduate of the Polytechnic in Iasi, embarked on his vast career. With humour, upon his return to the River Mureş, after three decades, the owner of REPCON recounts: “I’m a native of Copşa Mică. I went to middle school and high school there. I would have done anything just to get out of there, it was all drowned in carbon black, due to the famous plant

there. I liked math and physics, so I chose the Polytechnic. I went to the Faculty of Engineering in Iaşi in 1970, when there were big f loods in Transylvania, and I finished it in 1975, when, again, vast areas of the country were covered in water. I was assigned to the Enterprise for Special Hydrotechnical Works Târgu Mureş. I had not finished my internship when I became head of my team in Târnăveni, where I built the water outlet for the plant. I was then site supervisor at the transient accumulation in Vânători, on the Târnava Mare River. After a decade spent in Mureş, I went to Oradea as a site supervisor, and there I decided to start my own business in 1993, establishing the company REPCON. Although I was only known in the Ministry since I had

100 important hydrotechnical works in Romania 23 years of experience in dams and hydro works Over 50 million m3 capacity for the dams executed 150 engineers & workers 20 million euros projects for 2016

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carried out works of reference, the beginning was very difficult. I was judged as a newcomer in the industry. I had to adopt the policy of small steps, to take on smallscale works until I developed the REPCON of today, a landmark in the field of hydrotechnical constructions. We can execute any hydrotechnical works, of any level, even hydropower facilities, promptly, professionally and at a reasonable cost”.

The work of the year 2015 Work on the Niraj River brought financial tranquillity in the REPCON Company in 2015. By the end of the project, in December 2015, the Niraj River waterbed had been recalibrated over a length of 31.9 km, 7 km of new dams had been built, 1.6 km of walls and 1.2 km of concrete boxes had been erected, dams had been elevated and the hydrotechnical node from Miercurea Nirajului, at the conf luence of the Veţca Rivulet and the Niraj, had been rehabilitated. The villages Miercurea Nirajului, Dumitreşti, Găleşti, Bolintineni, WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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Contact: REPCON SA 14 Atelierelor St, Oradea, Bihor County, Romania Tel.: + 40 259 423 225; + 40 259 457 267 Fax.: + 40 259 423 308 E-mail: oradearepcon@yahoo.com Păsăreni, Murgeşti, Acăţari, Stejeriş, Crăciuneşti and Cinta, all of which have witnessed serious cases of f looding, are finally protected from nature’s fury. 800,000 cubic metres of earth have been moved with machinery, 29,000 cubic metres have been built into the concrete walls, into hydrotechnical nodes and boxes, and 80,000 cubic metres of stone have been used. The project has involved 150 workers and 30 high-capacity machines. Impressive figures, serious work force. REPCON already has its work scheduled for the years to come, for the time being in the amount of 20 million euros, at tenders it has already won. These are projects for which the State has not allocated money, waiting for European funds for the period 2016-2020. But there is always room for more. 79


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THE GROWTH POTENTIAL OF THE ELECTRICITY SECTOR The first power plant in the country operated in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, supplying the Victoria Palace. This was in 1882, the same year when Thomas Alva Edison launched into operation, in New York, the very first power plant in the world. In the same year, the Romanian energy specialists connected Cotroceni Palace to a power plant and the CFR Workshops at the Gare du Nord and Buşteni - the Paper Factory in Prahova County. In 1883 a new power plant was put into operation at the Victoria Palace, which also supplied power to the exterior lighting system of the National Theatre and Cismigiu Garden. This was the beginning of a history of over 100 years in which the Romanian Energy School materialized its knowledge. The installed power in the National Eelectroenergetic System (SEN) increased by about 30 times in the period 1950-1990, from 740 MW to 22,479 MW, in thermal power plants by about 25 times, from 680 MW to 16,822 MW, and in hydro power plants by almost 100 times, from 60 MW to 5,657 MW, as shown by Prof. Dr. Eng. Victor Vaida, SIER Chairman, in the work entitled “The Thermal Power Plants and Heating Stations in Romania - Past, Present and Future”. According to the same source, the production of electrical energy in Romania has been based primarily on the production of thermal-electric power plants, at a percentage of more than 80% (until 1996), 50-80% (1996-2012), below 50% after 2012, which have mainly used their own energy resources.

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he transformation of the electricity sector at global level is taking place at an accelerated pace, given the increasing degree of penetration of generation technologies based on renewable sources (hydroelectric power plants of small and large capacity, onshore and offshore wind power plants, classical and concentratorbased photovoltaic power plants, biomass power plants, etc.) and the implications of the digital revolution (intelligent networks with digital, real-time supervisory and coordinating mechanisms, with twoway communication), as shown in the final report of the work session on electric energy, organized as part of the debates relating to the drafting of Romania’s Energy Strategy. Electricity generation in Romania will continue to rely, at least until the year 2030, both on fossil fuels (coal and natural gas) and on renewable resources.Without a doubt, meeting the decarbonization targets entails the gradual growth of energy from renewable sources, respectively of natural gas at the expense of coal, according to one of the Romanian specialists’ forecasts, included in the final report of the work session on electric energy, organized by the Ministry of Energy for the development of Romania’s Energy Strategy. The electric energy production sector in Romania is structured on the basis of the type of primary resource used for obtaining electricity - hydro, nuclear, thermal, wind, photovoltaic and biomass. The total quantity of electricity delivered to the networks of electricity producers - with or

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without power dispatch units was 59.97 Thw, according to ANRE. The largest quantity was delivered by the hydro sector - 27.36%, registering a decrease by 13% in the quantity injected into the network, then coal 26.89%, nuclear - 17.83%, gas - 13.68% and wind - 11.03%. Up to 100%, the difference in delivered electricity production comes from photovoltaic power plants - 2.43%, biomass - 0.72% and fuel oil - 0.06%. Most increases in the quantity delivered to SEN were from photovoltaic plants - 56%, plants based on natural gas - 18%, followed by wind power farms - 14%. Overall, the amount of electricity delivered in the national power system has increased by 1%, the growth being generated by the increase in final consumption by 3.9% and correlated with the increase in the balance of export-import transactions. Over 68% of the energy produced

by the dispatch producers comes from Hidroelectrica SA -16132 GWh (hydro), Oltenia Energy Complex - 14,957 GWh (coal) and SN Nuclearelectrica SA - 11,640 GWh (nuclear). The top producers are: OMV Petrom SA - 3463 GWh (gas), Electrocentrale București SA (gas), Hunedoara Energy Complex - 1842 GWh (gas), Romgaz SA - 1798 GWh (gas), Enel Green Power Romania (wind) SRL - 1330 GWh, Tomis Team SRL - 777 GWh (wind), CET Govora SA - 614 GWh (coal), Ovidiu Development SRL - 535 GWh (wind), Veolia Energie SRL Prahova - 454 GWh (gas). Other manufacturers that have not reached the 0.5% market share produce the difference of up to 62,624 GWh, i.e. 1912 GWh.

Renewables are gaining ground In the final report of the work session on electric energy, organized by the Ministry of Energy for developing Romania’s Energy Strategy, it is shown that the number of operating hours of coal-fired and natural gas capacities has decreased because of the growing share of electricity production from renewable sources, but its authors stress that the main reason of the low coefficient of installed power usage for these units is the very low number of operating hours for some of the old and inefficient units. Only some groups based on coal actually work, being frequently shut down for repair and maintenance, while others are under conservation or are undergoing extensive retechnologization/ modernization. Coal and natural gas have allocated 49% of the gross installed power (12,000 MW), but they represent 43% of the gross available power (9,000 MW) and only 40% of the annual electricity production. “This suggests that approximately 1,000 MW from the available installed coal-based capacity and 1,000 MW of that based on natural gas (i.e. a total of 2,000 MW of the 9,000 MW available) could be withdrawn without significantly affecting the operation of SEN”, the report states. In order for SEN not to be affected, the withdrawn units could be replaced with small new effective units. A problem reported in the work session on electric energy brought into question the competitiveness, sustainability and modernization of the electricity generation sector WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY based on coal and natural gas, one of the proposed solutions being the integration of mono-fuel producers into large companies, including producers of power based on coal, natural gas, hydro and renewable sources, in an energy mix at the producer and not at the sale. Currently, electricity suppliers are those that carry out this aggregation and obviously their options are for the cheapest electricity. This means that the electricity produced on the basis of natural gas and coal is not one of the favourites. The Energy Strategy will provide an indication of the probable development of the energy mix and electric power, as well as the most cost-effective types of units. Perhaps the units based on natural gas will be perceived as more attractive in most cases, compared with coal-based ones. Any investment in a particular project will require an additional set of considerations, grounding the final investment decision. Also, although the technologies that use renewable energy sources (RES) developed in Romania in the past five years (wind, photovoltaic) have a null marginal cost of the energy source, they require relatively high maintenance works and have a relatively short lifespan (10-20 years). For this reason, starting no later than the year 2020, in order to maintain Romania on a SRE trajectory of 27% of the total energy consumption at the level of the year 2030, an investment process of unit replacement will have to be initiated, on the basis of SRE with new units. To do this, investors need clarity with regard to the mechanism for supporting the different technologies based on renewables.

The situation of electricity consumption According to CNTEE Transelectrica SA, the electricity system and transmission operator, electricity consumption growth, higher over the past year, reached 58,869 GWh in 2015. The difference is exported. Romania is a net energy exporter to the markets in the region -Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic. The physical balance (export minus import) was, in 2015, 6,728 GWh, decreasing by 5.52% compared to 2014, but by 234% higher than in 2013. In percentage terms, 10% of Romania’s production

of electricity was exported. “However, the export of electricity in itself is not a strategic goal. The export of electricity means, typically, the export of public subsidies for electricity or the non-internalization of significant environmental costs. Rather, the State must act to strengthen competitiveness in the area of system services. Thanks to back-up capacities designed at the national level, in many of the Member States of the EU, there will be a surplus of power and its long-term exportation will be possible only if the producers are competitive on the regional and European markets. Therefore, for the energy sector in Romania it is necessary to rethink the legislative barriers and establish a level of taxation and fiscality comparable to those of the competitors. Regionalization will play an increasingly more important role, contributing to the harmonization and leveling of fiscal policies”, as shown in the document of the Ministry of Energy. In terms of electricity consumption, the final report of the work session on electric energy notes that: “In shaping the demand for electricity for the main consumer segments, an important factor is energy intensity, particularly in the industry. Increasing energy efficiency through investments in technology and switching to new industrial processes is essential for businesses with high energy intensity, in order to cope with international competition. In Romania, the

companies in the sectors of ferrous metallurgy, aluminium and others have invested considerable sums in energy efficiency, the economic efficiency potential being currently largely achieved. Further investment could be necessitated, in the medium term, either by the adoption of new, more efficient processes by the competition, or by a higher price of electricity. For the residential and services segments, energy intensity evolves in tandem with the emergence and adoption of new technologies - better generations of appliances, new lighting technologies. Increasing energy efficiency on these segments does not lead automatically, however, to a decline in consumption, because the additional available income is spent on new electricity-consuming activities - the rebound effect”. The demand for electricity in total energy demand is likely to follow the global trend in Romania, too, also in the field of services and in the residential environment, due to the use of air conditioning or underfloor heating. Also, another rising trend might be recorded in agriculture irrigation systems - and in transport - electric mobility and the increasing share of rail transport. Specialists in the electricity sector also anticipate a low probability that new large consumers might appear in the industrial sector in Romania; however, an increase in the number of small consumers is estimated to occur. 83


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ION DRĂGHICI THE LORD OF THE IRON GATES Ion Drăghici is a hydropower engineer chosen by this job, dedicated to this job, who showed us, in those few hours that we spent together, the thrill of a life lived in the Romanian hydropower system plants. It is an extensive lesson in hydropower that we present briefly to those who admire the hands that built and passes on to the next generations a necklace of energy lungs. He says he was guided in life by the words of a professor of his: “If you get involved, you will gain knowledge, if you’re good, the money comes on their own” and admits to having the good fortune of having a wife who understood his desire to learn and advance, to dedicate himself to this passion that followed him since childhood. Ion Drăghici began his career at Electrocentrale Cluj, was a PRAM - AMC shop foreman at the plant in Sebeș, Chief Engineer at Haţeg Branch, technical director and director of the same branch, and, in 2014, he returned home as a production manager of Iron Gates branch, the heart of the Romanian hydropower system.

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on Drăghici, production manager of Iron Gates Branch within Hidroelectrica SA, we wait for him to conclude an operative meeting. Meanwhile, a gray haired specialist hands us an open book. It’s a story about the chief engineer Ion Drăghici from Haţeg Branch, a story of his youth. I read and I feel a deja-vu or that the time compressed and we beamed back 30 years to the days when, like today, he was assaulted by phone calls, problems, meetings and invariably all these pulled him out to the field where a new hydro power plant was being put into operation. But we are more fortunate than the authors of the chapter “In Haţeg Country” and for several hours we listen to a fascinating story that begins in Vânători, Mehedinţi county, where Ion Drăghici was born and raised, a village set no 60 km from the Iron Gates. There the child Ion Drăghici crafted a rudimentary and small thing that later he discovers to be the turbines between the hydro plants, the heart of the hydroelectric plant. The production manager recalls “In spring when snow was melting, I used to cut pieces of corn of about 10 cm, then stabbed them with a knife, then I used to cut stripes of the same length an put them in the stab holes, this way making a wheel. In the middle of the wheel I used to put a thin branch so I could twirl the wheel. Then I looked for two Y-shaped branches and stick them into the ground, and, in the V-shape, I placed the little mill and, I made water 84

run over it, and it turned”. It seems he was destined for this career, and, in the summer of 1966 he made his first journey by train to Timișoara and passed through the construction site of the Iron Gates. Ion Drăghici recalls “I just saw a forest of iron bars, which were the reinforcements. I was also impressed by a funicular with which they brought aggregates from the Golu Island. I remember, in the winter the Romanian

language teacher gave us an essay to do and I wrote about Golu Island”. By February next year, he heard on the radio information about Craiova Construction Industrial High School and wrote a letter stating that he would like to specialize in electrical construction, because he was very fond of physics, especially the electricity. “After a while I received an envelope from Energy Industrial High School, they sent me a leaflet, and asked me to WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY

display it in the village, which we did. In summer I had the admission exam to Energetic High School” concludes the specialist, a chapter of life. Back then, competition was high for the classes of electrical power, 8 to 11 candidates for one spot, and we spent five years in school, and that meant a lot of practice too. After the high school years, those of college came, of

A paradox „In 2014 there were five floods on the Danube, when the flow exceeds the capacity of the turbines, one must give way to water, one must insure that the plants work perfectly. It’s a paradox, when flows are high on the Danube, there are floods, the lake empties, the level drops, it can get from a depth of 69.5m, as is normal retention level in the dam, down to 65, 64 even 63m, level of the Baltic Sea. One can see land at Orșova, boats remain ashore there. When such situations accurse, the fall is less and less energy in produced” explains production manager Ion Drăghici.

course at Craiova Energy, Hydropower field. Years of intense study and the second national average at graduation allowing him to choose just about any city in the country where there were vacancies. “I could have went to Bucharest or go to Iron Gates where I was 56 km from home, my parents, but I preferred to go to Transylvania, because I thought: I will go to a hydro power plant which is advanced in construction, and will soon be commissioned, so I can see the phase of mounting effective installations and aggregates, and, I do not hide the fact that I was thinking that, this way, I can learn, I can participate in the commissioning phase, I can evolve”, this is how he explains the decision of a young man starting on his career and, life path.

The restlessness of the beginning This is how Ion Drăghici came to Electric Power Cluj, at its plant in Sebeş, where Sebeş river hydrotechnical management was under construction. “It was the first plant put into operation, Gâlceag underground station, 150 MW, with two Francis turbines of 75 MW each, upstream the very nice lake Oaşa, some of Sadoveanu’s writing was done there.

We then began an intense period of preparation to take over this task. As shift manager had a foreman, two electricians and two mechanics under me, I was the youngest of them. When we started at Oaşa, we sat day and night in shifts, to supervise the filling of the lake, and the plants” remembers Ion Drăghici. He was young, with little experience and at night he felt uneasy thinking that he will not be able to put a plant in operation. He used to take the secondary schemes and study them in shifts when he hade time to spare. Involved and dedicated to the profession has advanced quickly. As head PRAM (Relays, Automation and Measurement Protection) and AMC (Measuring gear and Control); named exceptionally because he did not have the necessary seniority; Ion Drăghici operated the plant in Şugag of 150 MW. “When the plant was to be commissioned in autumn, in the summer I began talking to the heads of Electricity and Heat Production Plant in Bucharest to go to Haţeg where Sebeș Plant had to be commissioned. First there was Retezat Plant, also an underground one, also with Francis turbines, but much larger, 170 MW. The Cluj management did not want to let me go, eventually they accepted a six months assignment” he recalls 85


ELECTRICITY amused of how he left. He underlines that it was an honor to commission the second largest plant on the exterior rivers, after Lotru. It was a commuting period, he left Monday for Haţeg and returned home on Saturday to Şugag, where he had left his family that supported him all the way in his career. Ion Drăghici admits “I had the understanding of my wife who has assumed all family obligations and accepted my work schedule, because when I was chief PRAMAMC, it meant Saturdays, Sundays, I did not have any holidays, when I started Șugag Plant was Christmas. When I was to go to Haţeg my wife was nine months pregnant and we had a 4 year old little girl. If it had not been for her support, I would not have had this career”. When his second son was born, it was on a Thursday, Friday he returned home, but that night the Gâlceag was flooded and he left home, even if the next day he should have been transferred to the Big River. He transfer was postponed. “We had to isolate with the help of scuba divers in order to keep the river water out. Then with pumps we had to extract water from the plant. Facilities no longer worked. This is how, after a months hard labor; day and night, I was leaving the plant au 3-4 A.M. only to be back at 9 A.M., I was „first violin”, we had to prepare functioning from electrical point of view, we hat to remove from clamps each relay, each box whit wires, to cleanse, to dry, after a month, we put into operation the first aggregate; and allowed me to go, “said Ion Drăghici.

A new stage in Haţeg Six months passed quickly, but he not longer wished to return to

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Electrocentrale Cluj. Given the circumstances, he remained in Haţeg as chief engineer. He commissioned 15 hydroelectric plants, five have been released only in 1988. It was an extraordinary mobilization and on the production facilities and, the construction and assembly, and, the electrical power. “Everything that means hydropower in Romania, except hydropower Lotru, where the generator was made by the French or Bicazul made by Skoda, Curtea de Argeş - Vidraru - also Skoda, all the rest are designed and manufactured in Romania, Reșita, including Iron Gates 1, the first three groups were made by Russians and the other three were made in Romania using Russian license. The dam, the sluice are built by Romanians”, says proudly production manager Ion Drăghici. The pace of commissioning after 1990 was reduced drastically. In the last 26 years, not even 15 hydropower plants have been built, or the construction work continued. “Currently if we would like to build a plant of this scale it is not achievable because do not have anyone” stresses with sorrow the specialist, industrial high schools have been closed. We slip towards the recent problems of

Commissioned in 1972, in collaboration with Serbia, then Yugoslavia, the hydroelectric Iron Gates I is the largest hydroelectric power plant on the Danube River and has an installed capacity of 1080 MW on the Romanian side. 15 km upstream from the town Drobeta Turnu Severin, an old Roman fort, the hydropower plant has a reservoir with a volume of 2,200 million cubic meters which extends from the dam to the confluence of the Tisa river. Iron Gates II, which also belongs to the Iron Gates Branch, is 60 km downstream from the city of Drobeta. Hydropower plant has 250 MW installed capacity on the Romanian side, and in was also built in partnership with Serbia. Hidroelectrica - political appointments resolved by abolishing CEOs - the exaggerated fees - tax on machined water, tax on hydro power plants introduced by the new Fiscal Code (tax on non-residential buildings). “They are allowed to a maximum rate of 1.3%, and the City Council can still increase that by half. Which Mayor does not want more money for the local budget? We are in a situation of Iron Gates 2, which belongs to the Gogoşu village; they established a 1.95% tax, in the City Council. The value of the plant is over 800 million lei”, says the disappointed Ion Drăghici. There are still many thing to write about and we hope to, someday, come back to the banks of the Danube, at Drobeta Turnu Severin to continue our story of Ion Drăghici and glanced once again upon the reinforced concrete colossus, six turbine, tower control, that fascinate at Iron Gates I. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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HIDROCONSTRUCTIA: 66 YEARS OF BUILDING EXPERIENCE IN HYDROPOWER PROJECTS Founded in 1950 with a view to performing the Bicaz hydropower development, Hidroconstructia has become along the years the greatest hydrotechnic works constructor in Romania. The complexity and extent of the hydropower development projects carried out by the company have contributed both to the development of a real school in this field and to formation of several teams specialized in the performance of works in the most various construction fields - civil, industrial, roads, bridges, edilitary etc - all being most of the times parts of the great and complex hydropower development projects. 87


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D

ue to its acquired experience, its technical endowment, but especially due to the professional quality of its people in the 11 subsidiaries spread all over Romania and which are forming it, Hidroconstructia is for sure, today, the business partner you permanently need. One of the most performant entities of the company is, no doubt, „Ardeal Subsidiary“, born in 1970 under a different name. The foundation of the Site Group „Somes“, in Tarnita, county Cluj, was determined by the approval of investment „Hydropower development of Somesul Cald“ in the upper basin. During its existence, the name was changed to „Cris-Somes“ and then to „Cris“, as a consequence of the promotion of new works in the Northern - Western part of Romania, thus becoming at present the Subsidiary „Ardeal“ Cluj. The Group started their activity by performing the works for the Somesul Cald development in the upper basin, taken over from Group Arges and carrying on of performance for storage lakes Gilau on Somesul Mic and Lesu, on Valea Iadului - Crisul Repede basin, beneficiary A.N. Apele Romane, for the water supply of towns ClujNapoca and Oradea, respectively. In parallel to the storage lake performance, the related HPP were also performed so that 4 HPP were running in 1976: Mariselu, Tarnita, Gilau and Lesu. The development of Somesul Cald and of Somesul Mic respectively were continued further on downstream with several other works; thus, between 1979 - 1987, nine hydropower nodes were performed on this section up to the town of Cluj-Napoca, including the river bed development along about 25 km. By proving professional skills and organizational capacity, the Subsidiary „Ardeal“ was entrusted with the performance of other large works as well in the whole northern half of Transylvania. Thus, in 1974, the works for the Draganlad complex development started, works of a high technicity, under special hydro-geologic conditions which were solved by the team’s capacity and technicality; in 1976, the works for Colibita storage lake was promoted for the water supply of Bistrita, in 1980 the Colibita HPP, and in 1983 the Lugasu storage lake from the Crisul Repede necklace. Within these works, a number of 88

first-ever solutions were applied both for the staff and for the Company, like for instance: the cementconcrete veil at dams Fantanele and Lesu, the polyethylene foil veil then asphaltic concret against leakages at Colibita dam, erection and follow up of CAER sourced AMC in parallel to the western sourced ones and others. The performance quality of such works was confirmed by their behaviour in running which is at a high level. In 1988, two new developments were promoted, namely the Hydropower Development „Rastolita“ in the Muresului basin and the RuncuFiriza one in Maramures which are still in progress because of lack of financing. Within the hydropower works the subsidiary also carried out others categories of civil and industrial works, acces roads, bridges, edilitary, hydrotechnical works and others which are usually to be found in the extensive projects of the hydropower developments. After 1990, the Company got involved in the performance of all categories of construction works. A list of the main works carried out

after 1990 does not cover the whole range of performed works, but it can form an adequate impression to objectively appreciate the team’s capacity in the construction field. Mainly, the company carried out works in civil constructions, industrial area, constructions of roads and bridges, edilitary, hydrotechnical constructions etc.

Rastolita Development The Ilva, Rastolita and Bistra rivers are affluent on the right side of the Mures river in the gorge on the sector Lunca Bradului-Deda from the Mures county. The development has a complex character, providing the water for the supply of the localities on the Mures valley ( 6.6 m3/sec) and the use of the hydropower potential of these rivers through the concentration of the discharges in the Rastolita storage lake then their deviation into the Mures river. The power utilization is subordinated to the use of supplying the necessary water. The entire development was designed before 1989 with certain parameters. In the year 1995 an upgrading study WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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from a new perspective was worked out, leading to the decrease of the installed flow from 25 to 17 m3/ sec and to the modification of the jetty route, correlated with a new environment agreement, more restrictive one. Mention should be made that the Rastolita storage lake also provides the transit of the flood waters and their reduction by 30%, the settlement of the flows and protection against floods. The storage lake is located on the valley of the Rastolita river, downstream from the junction of the brooks Seaca, Mijlociu and Tinu and at about 4.5 km upstream from the Rastolita village. The HPP is located on the Mures bank against the Borzia village. In order to provide the necessary flows for the storage lake, the flow of several affluent brooks on the right side of Mures had to be deviated and, collected in two jitties: the eastern branch ( L-4965 m, Q=1.55 m3/sec) which discharges into the lake, for Ilva Mare and Valea Bradului, and the western branch (L=11712 m, Q=0.218 m3sec), which discharges into the headrace, for Donca, Bistra, Galaioara Mica, Galaioara Mare and

TECHNICAL DATA: Dam RASTOLITA Designer ISPH River Mures Level of crown m 765.00 Dam height m 110.00 Purpose of storage HCS Year of commissioning 1972 HPP RASTOLITA HPP type MHC Upstream level m 760.00 Down-stream level m 655.00 Installed power MW 0.10 Average output GWh/year 1.00 Visa. The surface of the storage lake is of 115 ha. The dam is of a continuous type made of rockfill with a concrete mask at the upstream parament, with a grade of 1:1.5 both upstream and downstream. Mention should be made that a temporary access road for deposits in the dam body will be provided exactly on the downstream parament up to the crown. In order to carry out the works, a dry enclosure was made, the water passing through a deviation gallery

of 535 m with 4.7 m, located on the right slope and which can transport a flow of 125 m3/sec. Finally the gallery will be closed at the upstream end by a concrete plug and for the last 211 m downstream it will be used as a bottom outlet. The bottom outlet has an upstream segment under pressure, made of a concrete section (L-228.50 m, d=4.30 m) and a reinforced segment (L=45 m, d2,40 m) up to the valve house. Downstream from the gate house the bottom outlet has a length of 273 m and 4.7 m, from which the last 211 m are taken over from the deviation gallery. The valve house at the bottom outlet is an underground cave where two cut off plates in a casing of 1.7x2.4m are erected. The access to the valve house is possible by means of a gallery performed downstream (L=248 m, d 2.80 m). From the valve house, a by-pass pipe takes over the service flow which it transports to a HPP at the dam foot equipped with one Francis turbine with a horizontal axis FO (Q=0.2 m3sec, Pi=0,1MW, Em=1 GWh/ year). The dimensioning flow of the high water discharger is of 400 cm/s, and the verification flow of 804 cm/s. 89


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The storage lake attenuates the flood waters from 804 to 660 cm/s. The high water discharger has an underground gallery located on the left slope (L=240 m, d 6.75 m) which continues with a reinforced concrete segment made in time (L=110 m). The connection well (H=30 m, d 6.74 m) from the underground is continued by a surface segment of about 40 m. The outlet structure was designed for a flow of 600 m3/sec and checked for a flow of 650 m3/sec. The dam tightening is of a concrete mask type, with a surface of about 84,000 m2 and a volume of 42,000 m3. The chosen construction solution allows for a performance in stages enabling the commissioning at a minimum power having the level of 720 mdM. The headrace is an underground gallery of 8535 m having the water intake, the valve house, the inlet above a wet well (H=61 m, d6.00 m) and, along the route, a connecting well (H=96 m, d 1.40 m) through which the waters caught by the western branch of the jetties was received. The pressure node is made by the water tower (H=76 m, d 6.20 m), the upper room (H=14 m), the butterfly valve house and the penstock. The HPP Rastolita is half-buried, the surface segment being the erection hall and the machine hall. It is provided with two Francis turbines in casing and with concreted 90

aspirators. The settlement basin between the HPP building and the bank of the Mures tiver, plays also the role of a compensating basin for the regulation of the flows discharged into the river. The works started in the year 1989, being timed with the flow of available finances. At present the fillings in the dam body are done and the headrace and the HPP are almost completed. The jetties are in stand-by for the moment. A steady financing of the works would allow their completion in less than 1 year.

The Tarniţa Dam and HPP The Tarnita dam and HPP represent the second development stage within TECHNICAL DATA: Dam TARNITA Designer ISPH River Somesul Cald Level of crown m 525.00 Purpose of storage HR Year of commissioning 1974 HPP TARNITA HPP type PB Upstream level m 521.50 Down-stream level m 441.00 Installed power MW 45.00 Average output GWh/year 80.00

the whole Somesul Mic system. Located in a gorge like area, upstream from the Tarnita commune, represented by massive amphybolites in thick blocks, re-grouted with carbon solutions which consolidated the rock. The suitable geomorphologic conditions allowed for the designing and performance of a very slender arch dam, the slenderest in the country, having a base thickness of 11 m and of 4 m at the crown. Downstream, at the dam base there is the HPP, whose structure is separated from the dam body by a permanent joint. The intakes and the penstocks of the 2 HPP groups are located in 2 central plots, symmetrical as against the dam axis. The dam is divided in 20 plots separated among them by permanent contraction joints of a spiral shape. For the water dischargers the dam was equipped with 2 intakes on the upstream parament with penstocks Ø=3,60 m which supply the turbines, a surface outlet at the right bank with 2 overflow openings equipped with 3x8 m gates over the spillway crown having a discharge capacity of 540 m³/s, 2 intakes with discharge at semibottom with Ø=1,70 m, with log pass over the HPP building and a bottom discharge pipeline. The HPP is built in the plot area 9-13 and it is equipped with 2 Francis turbines having a unit power of 22.5 MW. The settlement basin is continued with a partially concreted canal WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COMPANY PROFILE which crosses the last area of the Somesul Cald gorges. The presence of the HPP at the downstream foot imposed a number of adjustments in the designing of the dam structural configuration. The theoretical section of the dam splays by 11 m above the foundation level, under the form of a base with downstream extension, on which part of the HPP superstructure was located. The downstream limit of the base is separated from the HPP infrastructure by a permanent joint. Under the lake water load, the dam downstream parament applies a pressure on the HPP superstructure although a joint was provided. These are other structural connection between the dam and the HPP, the troughs of the semi-depth dischargers are partially connected to the HPP roof by their position converging downstream, carrying in case of downstream movements superstructure elements as well. Another problem is the thermal insulation from the temperature variations in the atmosphere, a HPP achieves in the contact area with the dam downstream parament. As a consequence, the thermal regime in the dam is almost constant with a temperature of about 10° in the median fiber in front of the HPP. This particular feature of the thermal field modifies the movements and thermal-elastic efforts in the central area of the dam as compared to the theoretic dam. The actual status was followed up in time, studied

and theoretized. The HPP effects on the static behaviour of the dam were signalled by the follow up in operation of the dam – HPP ensemble and they were evaluated from a quantitative point of view based on the theoretic model, of finite elements, fact confirmed by the conformity between the movements and the efforts calculated with those measured by the AMC system. The final conclusion was that in the field of the static loadings, the presence of the HPP does not affect the dam safety.

The Dragan Project The dam is located downstream from the Dragan river confluence with the Sebesel, this narrow valley presenting the optimum conditions to fit in a concrete arch dam. Geologically the location is suitable for this type of dam, both slopes being made of quartz and mica gneisses alternating with curved schysts. The storage lake having a surface of 293 ha at the normal level of retention develops along the two valleys which form a reception basin of 153 km2 out of which an average multi-annual flow is collected in the dam section of 5.3 m3/s. The construction characteristics of the dam depended on the performance of an optimum necessary accumulated volume of over 100 million m3 (out of which 60 million power, 40 million for the regulation of the Crisul Repede

river and 6 million for the flood attenuation). In the conditions in which the area lacked the natural clay and ballast sources, the choice of the construction variant had a particular character, the result being the solution of a concrete arch dam with a height of 120 m and double curvature, ranking second as a challenging solution in the country after the Paltinu dam. The Dragan dam has a pronounced curvature in a vertical plane with a strong upstream erection in the bottom area and a downstream plunged in the crown area. The dam was designed for a flow with the provision of 1 % of 272 m3/s and of 0.1 % of 455 m3/s. The high water discharger is formed of 5 overflow outlets of an ellipse profile placed in the central outlets which can transit 610 m3/s. The level of the spillway crown is at 2.00 m TECHNICAL DATA: Dam DRAGAN Designer ISPH River Dragan Level of crown m 856.00 Purpose of storage HC Year of commissioning 1985 HPP REMETI Upstream level m 851.00 Down-stream level m 516.00 Installed power MW 146.00 Average output GWh/year 200.00

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COMPANY PROFILE above the normal retention level. The maintenance of the water at NNR level is provided by two slots 0.50 m high (whose capacity is of 100 m3/s) on two of the spillway outlets. Thus a volume of 6 million m3 between the NNR and the spillway crown is created for the attenuation of the flood water wave. The water head from about a 110 m height makes it possible, upon extended overflows, to form an erosion hole in the impact area. To eliminate this danger, about 150 m downstream a spillway sill of 12 m height was made meant to facilitate the formation of a water mattress able to render harmless the development of such a potential erosion. The dam is provided with two bottom outlets having Ă˜=1300mm, each of them equipped with two cut off plates placed on the plot 18, 20 m above the dam foundation and having a capacity of 42 m3/s. Under the conditions of a very low permeable and homogenous rock, the tightening veil was meant rather to distribute the pressures on the foundation rock. Instead a draining system consisting of a digging row from the perimetral gallery and a system at the downstream foot of the dam were more developed. The pouring of the concrete was carried out by means of 2 Bleichert cable cranes with the span of the traveling cable of 860 m.

The Munteni I - HPP The tailrace gallery of Remeti HPP represents the headrace up to the intermediary access well of the Munteni I HPP which processes the running flows from the Remeti HPP and Lesu HPP. It is placed in an underground cave of 48 x 32 x 15 m and it is equipped with two Francis turbines with vertical axis, each of them having an installed flow of 24.5 m3/s at a water head of 153 m between the levels of 517 and 364 mdM. The access to the machine hall for the equipment and staff is through a well. The tailrace gallery with a free level has a length of 4,299 m and Ă˜=4.25 m. Its running was conditioned by the downstream existence of a strong carsted area. TECHNICAL DATA: HPP: MUNTENI I Owner HE Designer ISPH River Dragan + Iad Upstream level m 517.00 Down-stream level m 364.00 92

Installed power MW 58.00 Average output GWh/year 115.40 Year of commissioning 1988

Lugasu Dam & HPP The Crisul Repede basin, an affluent of the Cris river, is situated in the Eastern part of the Bihor County and it gathers its water from the Northern slopes of the Bihor mountains. Having affluents which are developed from a hydropower point of view such as Draganul, Lesu and Secuieu, the Crisul Repede continued these developments, benefiting by the flow regulation. The development sector, between the localities of Vadu Crisului and Fughiu, has a length of about 50 km and a water head of 136 m. The multi-annual average flow is of 19.6 m3/s at the downstream end of the development. The complete development comprises a water-fall made of the Crisul Repede catchment, the HPP Astileu I and II on the canal, storage lake of Lugasu (65.4 million m3) and Tileagd (52.9 million m3), the HPP Sacadat and Fughiu on the canal and a rectifying basin, downstream from the latter. Out of all these HPP, HIDROCONSTRUCTIA S.A. performed only the Lugasu stage. Placed on the middle stream of the Crisul Repede, in an open and flat

valley, the whole development has the standard character of a plain work and an almost identical identity to that of Tileagd and to those on the Arges as well. The Lugasu storage lake is made of: - the dam HPP in the retention front; - the dam with 3 openings of a storeyed type each of them having 3 bottom outlets of 2.50 x 5.00 m, the bottom part being equipped with radial gates, retention drum and a crown span provided with a flap valve (15.30 x 2.70 m) - dams of 15650 m. The calculation flow is of 1240 m3/s and the verification one is of 1800 m3/s. On the left side of the dam there is a lateral discharger made of 2 galleries of 2.50 x 2.00 equipped with cut off plates. It can discharge 90 m3/s. The tightening up to the base rock of the HPP and dam was performed by groutings from the draining gallery and upstream groutings. The grouting curtain is continued by the in-depth tightening at the upstream foot of the dikes and it is partially made with a concrete cast wall of 6 8 m depth or a concrete pin up to 2.5 m towards the lake end. The Lugasu HPP is a dam HPP having a gross water head of 25.00 m at an installed flow of 90 m3/s, where two Kaplan turbines are installed. The two stages dissipator, of 37 and 31 m, ends in a sill. The settlement basin is in fact the regulated bed along 600 m. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COMPANY PROFILE Fantanele Dam and HPP Mariselu

TECHNICAL DATA: Dam FINTINELE Owner HE Designer ISPH River Somesul Cald Level of crown m 996.00 Purpose of storage HC Year of commissioning 1976 HPP: MARISELU Upstream level m 991.00 Down-stream level m 521.50 Installed power MW 220.00 Average output GWh/year 390.00 Between the HPP and the dam, along the dissipator length it was achieved a separating pile for the running flows was performed. TECHNICAL DATA: Dam LUGASU Owner HE Designer ISPH River Crisul Repede Dam type PG / TE Level of crown m 224.00 Purpose of storage HS Year of commissioning 1989 HPP: LUGASU Upstream level m 220.00 Down-stream level m 195.00 Installed power MW 18.00 Average output GWh/year 35.00

The storage lake Fantanele is located with the brook Batrina. A storage lake for a power usage by catching the river Somes as well as by catching and derivating 8 affluents from the neighboring basins. Thus, the brooks Iara, Undru, Soimu, Cailor, Negruta and Dumitreasa are gathered by a jetty of 5079 m long into the Somesul Rece storage lake formed behind an arch dam on the river Somesul Rece from where it runs into the Fintinele lake through another jetty 7206 m long which takes over the waters of brook Racatau along its route. The dam Fintinele is located in the contact area between the Muntele Mare granite with frequent fractures and the much more compact Gilau crystalline. The contact between the granite and the schysts has the aspect of a 5-10 cum wide fault filled with clay rock. In the dam intake the base rock is covered by delluvia deposits having a high percentage of sandy clay of 2-5 m thickness which was removed to perform the rockfill deposits directly on the rock. The type cross section of the dam has a vee shape with the upstream and downstream limited parameters al slopes 1:1.4, the downstream slope being interrupted by 3 berms. In the cross section the filling in the dam body comprises 2 distinct areas. The upstream area of about 10 m was made in 0.75 m thick layers of rockfill with controlled grading having the max. size of 60 cm. The balance of the dam volume was made in 1.50 m thick layers, of rockfill having a continuous grading and the grain size of max. 1.20 m. After having carried out the fillings, a stone dry masonry of 3040 cm thick stone was made at the upstream parament under the mask. The dam body is curved in plane having a 1000 m radius, so that the joints of the tightening mask should close in parallel with the settlement and water movements. At the upstream foot a concrete spur was made embedded in the base rock which was initially the upstream cofferdam. This spur includes the grouting and draining gallery and it supports the tightening mask. The in-depth tightening was made with 2 rows of 35 - 50 m drillings and with one upstream inclined row of 5 - 15 m. There is a row of draining drills towards downstream. The tightening of the dam body

is made by means of a reinforced concrete mask at the upstream parament, having a variable thickness from 90 cm at the base to 35 cm at the crown. The mask has a surface of 34.000 cm and it is made of 278 slabs tightened in the joints by the means of a PVC strip. Along the whole perimeter contour of the mask, about 16 m wide, an additional tightening was provided in the joints by means of a steel plate strip of 4 mm. In order to dry the enclosure for the dam performance, a curved deviation gallery was made in the right slope. The role of the upstream cofferdam taken over by the concrete spur on which the tightening mask was subsequently supported. The steep river slope did not make necessary a downstream cofferdam. The dam bottom outlet is done through a reinforced penstock located on the right slope above the deviation gallery. The bottom outlet intake of a grid tower type is located in the middle of the river bed to be protected against sinking in the alluvia. The connection between the intake and the gallery was made through a reinforced concrete tunnel founded on the base rock. The bottom outlet closes with 2 cut off plates located in an underground valve house. Downstream from the valves, the bottom outlet shall connect to the deviation gallery which runs at free level. The high water discharger is of a surface type with free spillway sill with a 3.60 m span, located on the right bank, dimensioned at the running of a 750 cm/s flow, suitable for the attenuated flow to provide 0,01% and verified at a 1200 cm/s flow. Downstream from the sill the flows are led through a discharge canal with a steep slope ended with an ejector. The HPP Mariselu. A main derivation of 8746 m with phi=4,40 m, a water tower with bottom and upper room, the butterfly valve chamber, the penstock, the distributers and the sphere valves transport a 58 cm/s flow toward HPP Mariselu. The HPP is located underground in the Gilau mountains, 100 m deep under the brook Lesu and about 150 m laterally in the slope in a 71 x 18 x 36 m cave. From a geologic point of view the area is made of crystal schysts of a good quality in proportion of 70%. The main access to the HPP is made through a 846 m long tunnel, which enables the vehicle traffic, having a 8% slope and a level difference of 68 m. The electricity output from the HPP is done through a cable gallery having a 93


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total length of 185 m which can also be used as a secondary access to the machine hall. The ventilation shaft and gallery used as a 3rd access to the machine hall were redeveloped to this end out of former studies. The equipment of the HPP consists in 3 Francis turbines with a vertical axis and a metal volute chamber embedded in concrete. The HPP turns into account a maximum water head of 470 m between levels 991 mdM and 521 mdM. The HPP have a peak running regime, the pulsation waters being taken over by the Tarnita storage lake through an ovoid concreted tailrace, of 3631 m long, with phi=4,60 m and free level flow.

Colibita Development The hydrotechnic development Colibita is located in the upper basin of the Bistriţa Ardeleană river. The reception basin is developed in the area of the Călimani and Bîrgăului mountains covering an area of 200 km². From a geologic point of view, this region is made of volcanic rocks (volcanic conglomerates and andesites) with sediment deposit areas. Upon finalizing the development layout, the perspective elevation of the dam by 10 m was taken into account as well as the possibility to perform downstream from the development several HPP steps on the derivation with a total of 20 MW 94

TECHNICAL DATA: Dam-COLIBITA Designer-ISPH River-Bistrita Level of crown- m 805.00 Purpose of storage- HS Year of commissioning-1988 HPP- COLIBITA Upstream level- m 725.50 Down-stream level- m 601.00 Installed power-MW 21.00 Average output- GWh/year 47.50 and upstream from the storage lake a HPP of 3.2 MW. The storage lake Colibita for complex usages is mainly meant to provide the supply of Bistrita with industrial and drinking water. In order to meet the needs of all utilities and especially in order to become efficient from a power point of view the useful volume of the storage lake was increased from 60 to 65 mil m³ by lowering the minimum level in the lake was raised and an additional stock of 1,29 m³/s was derivated into the lake from the adjoining basin of rivers Repedea and Birgau on the route of the headrace through 4 catchments. The main works of the development are: The Colibita rockfill dam has the crown level of 805, the base height of 92 m and the crown length of 241

m. Thus, the dam swallowed 1,610 mil m³ rockfill made of volcanic andesites. The dam foundation was made on the base rock whose imperviousness was provided by a tightening veil made of 2 rows of drillings located alternatively at a 1 m distance. The drilling depth was of 35 m in the river bed and of 50-60 m in the slopes. The dam was thus designed as to be carried out in 2 steps: in the first step, the possibility to store a 10 mil m³ volume, the retention level being at level 765 and the crown level at 771 and in the second step at the final level. The dam body was tightened during the first step by a temporary mask made of PVC foil and during the 2nd step made of bitumen concrete, the total surface being of 26.000 m². The temporary mask made in 1982 needed the preparation of the upstream parament by performing a dry masonry of stone compacted by vibrations over which a levelling mortar of about 5 cm was applied. The mortar was covered by a sheet of Kraft paper stuck with bitumen. The polyethylene Kraft paper side was covered by a PVC tarpaulin of 0.8 mm glued to it, and by another expanded PVC foil of 4 mm. The connection between the various layers of the tightening system and the concrete beam at the base was made by means of a metal profile secured with bolts. The tightening WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COMPANY PROFILE

system was protected with reinforced concrete prefab plates of 2,50 x 2,00 x 0,15 m, directly erected on the expanded PVC layer. Upon dismantling of the provisional mask in 1989, the PVC foil was found to have behaved well in spite of a certain aging phenomenon. The final mask made of asphalt mixtures laid on a support layer specially preparated and made of: -a bitumen concrete layer (for levelling) semi-compacted, 5 cm thick; -a layer of compact bitumen concrete 6 cm thick; -a layer of draining bitumen concrete 9 cm thick; -2 layers of compact bitumen concrete 5 cm thick each; -a layer of bitumen mastic for protection against the sum rays. The mask was made of 3.00 m stripes after the line of the greatest grade by means of a set of equipment conceived and made by HIDROCONSTRUCŢIA S.A. The other works of the development were: The headrace made of a tower intake common to the bottom outlet intake, continued by 210 m of gallery (out of which 60 m with lining) and the bottom outlet valve house. The connecting pipeline to the HPP headrace starts from the reinforced area. The HPP headrace is made of a metal pipeline of 150 m with Ø=2,20 m located in the access

gallery to the bottom outlet valve house, the crossing on the left slope (downstream from the dam) with a reinforced concrete pipeline (L=75m, Ø=2,20) lined at the inside and supported by 2 piles, the headrace gallery (L=6.500 m, Ø=2,80) up to the water tower. Along the gallery route 4 connecting shafts are provided at the secondary catchments. The water tower with a bottom and upper room, with circulation and diaphragm in the shaft, with h=84 m and Ø=4,40 m is continuated by the butterfly valve house, penstock of 233 m, the distributor and the sphere valve. The HPP is of a semi-buried shaft type with Ø=13,60 m and a total height of 34.55 m, equipped with a Francis group of 21 MW at an installed flow of 15.50 m³/s and a water head of 194,5 m. For a uniform supply of the water flow to the consumer, a compensating basin of 90.000 m³ was made in mixed profile, except the adjusted river bed. Out of the compensating basin 2 SENTAB pipelines are erected with a total length of 230 m and Ø=2,00. They are continued with box type prefabs which run in the river bed and are provided with cofferdam valves, bypass pipeline and adjustable valve to run uniformly downstream the water flow required by the consumer. Secondary derivations and catchments: The Repedea derivation catches 0,45 m³/s of water from the Repedea affluent by means of a Tyrolean intake at the water level which it runs into the storage lake by means of a 796 m gallery. The Bîrgău derivation catches the flows of the Bîrgău (0,40 m³/s) with a Tyrolean catchment – Straja – and runs it through a 6,500 m jetty. Along the route of the headrace the brooks Şoimul de Jos, Şoimul de Sus, Iezerul and Stejea were also caught which together collect 0,44 m³/s water. Initially the catchment of the Pietroasele river of 0,22 m³/s was provided, but it was abandoned consequence of an economic analysis. The main work quantities: -earthworks– 388.000 m³, -rockfills – 1.720.000 m³, -reinforced concrete and concrete – 135.000 m³, -asphalt concrete mask – 26.000 m², -groutings – 25.900 m. The works took place between 1979 – 1983 and 1990 –1994.

CONTACT ROMANIA: HEADQUARTER:

Adress: Bucharest, 103-105 Dorobantilor Avenue Sector 1, Bucharest - Romania Code: 010561 E-mail: office@hidroconstructia.com Phone no: +40.(0).21.20.81.400 +40.(0).21.20.81.411 Fax no.: +40.(0).21.208.14.01 +40.(0).21.208.14.02 +40.(0).21.317.52.03

ARDEAL SUBSIDIARY Address: Oasului Street, Nr.8 – 10 Cluj - Napoca, jud.Cluj, Cod 400268 Phone no.: +40(0).264/436203; 436204; 436100; Fax no.: +40(0).264/436610 e-mail: ardeal@ hidroconstructia.com

CONTACT FOREIGN OFFICES: BELGIUM

Adress: Adolphe Lacomblelaan 40, Bus 10, 1030, Schaerbeek Telefon: +32 471 015 222 Fax: +32(0)27429294 E-mail: hidro_belgium@ hidroconstructia.com

GERMANY:

Paradiesstrasse 1, Kirkhheim unter Teck, D-73230 Phone: + 49 (0) 7021/923330 Fax: +49 (0) 7021/923392 Mobile: +49 (0) 1728/625826 E-mail: hidro_deutschland@ hidroconstructia.com

FINLANDA

Helsinki, FI – 00100, Bulevardi 1A Telefon:+40 (0)21 208 14 86 Mobil : +40 (0) 728 131 546 E-mail : hidro_finland@ hidroconstructia.com

IRAK

Erbil – Bakhtearee Mobile: (+964)7508173086 E-mail: erbil@ hidroconstructia.com www.hidroconstructia.com

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OBJECTIVE: 500-750 MILLION EUROS FOR A 15% STAKE IN HIDROELECTRICA SA A public interest company, of strategic interest, Hidroelectrica SA is one of the most important and most powerful electricity producers in Romania and is preparing now for coming out of insolvency, an event projected for this year, and not just anyway, but by being listed on the stock exchange. With a 63% EBIDTA of the turnover, the company will be the Prom Queen of successful listings on the stock exchange, as Remus Borza, the judicial administrator of Hidroelectrica, believes.

T

he listing of Hidroelectrica SA at the Bucharest Stock Exchange - and even the London Stock Exchange is one of the Government decisions related to the company. Do you consider this complex undertaking a necessity, given that Hidroelectrica has very good profitability figures, an investment budget of 1.3 billion euros, and that by removing some legislative and fiscal barriers it would become a lot more competitive regionally? The data have changed radically over the past four years at Hidroelectrica, and when I refer to the data, what I have in mind is the evolution of financial indicators. In 2012 we were considering listing the company in order to capitalize it. In 2012 I took over a company with very weak financial indicators, let us remember that Hidroelectrica was the most indebted company in Romania, with 5.3 billion debts or receivables claimed by the body of creditors, this means about 1.2 billion euros, it had a negative net treasury of about 783 million lei and, obviously, the cumulative financial result 2011-2012 showed a minus, a loss of 170 million euros. In such circumstances, it’s obvious that the listing of a minority package could cover this cash and liquidity deficit and improve the treasury. Once it entered into insolvency, the listing of Hidroelectrica was no longer a priority, for the judicial administrator’s efforts were channelled towards improving these indicators, restructuring the business, making it efficient and, above all, restructuring the costs, increasing the revenue 96

and, obviously, getting a positive financial result. This happened indeed. We are talking today, in 2016, about a company which records the highest profitability among all the companies included in the Commercial Register, i.e. it records an EBIDTA of 63% of the turnover, which means around 500 million euros in operational profit every year, so we are talking today about a company that has no debt, virtually having managed, since last year, to pay the entire balance on the nominal amount of debt. We are talking today about a company that sits on a liquidity of 1.6 billion lei (almost 400 million euros). Last year we gave dividends to the shareholders of about 200 million euros, and this will be repeated this year, at roughly the same amount. In other words, every month, the treasury of Hidroelectrica is capitalized by another 100 million lei. Today, relative to these indicators, Hidroelectrica no longer needs the investors’ money in a possible listing process. I still see the listing as necessary and useful from another perspective today: the laws of the capital market ensure transparency through reporting, so they are similar from this point of view with insolvency law. In its four years of insolvency, Hidroelectrica made a unique exercise in the landscape of State economy or of State-controlled companies, namely it has shown very much transparency, because every month, within the company we prepare a report on all departments. Any person who is interested can check, in real time, what is the evolution of the company and, possibly, if he notices certain side-slips, he can

penalize these through a public stand. The listing of Hidroelectrica is a necessary measure to that break this monopoly of the State in managing Hidroelectrica, allowing for a capital infusion, and this is indisputable. We are not talking of little money; my expectations are for a package of 15%, between 500 and 750 million euros, so very much money will come to Hidroelectrica. After listing, Hidroelectrica will have its own liquidity of over 1 billion euros. I don’t necessarily insist that the money should come to Hidroelectrica, it would be much more correct to change the strategy of privatization, in the sense of not issuing new shares, as the effect of a capital increase, with the consequence of the entry of money into Hidroelectrica, because as I said, Hidroelectrica needs no additional money. Hidroelectrica is so bankable today that it can access, at any time, at least 1 billion euros at an interest rate of 1%, under very good conditions. And then, it would be much more correct if the State sold 15% of its holding of 80% it currently has at Hidroelectrica and if this money went to the State budget. Maybe it’s necessary to give an explanation for the amount of 500-750 million euros for the shares that are to be listed . . . Any listing of a company is done at a multiple EBITDA between 10 and 15 times. Energy companies are somewhere at the top threshold because they have very good yields and it’s a practice on the market to use a multiple of EBITDA by 12-13-14 times. If in the last two financial years 2014-2015, we had WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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ELECTRICITY

“Capital market law, just like insolvency law, keeps politics from interfering in the management of the company. The politicized management of Hidroelectrica was one of the causes identified by the judicial administrator, one of the nine causes of insolvency. The insolvency of Hidroelectrica came along and showed that the State companies have potential, that they can generate trust, stability and profit if they are managed correctly, if they are managed by individuals who are recommended by their own competence, morality, professional capabilities and not exclusively by their party membership. The State companies can and must become genuine engines of economic growth and social stability pillars�.

Remus Borza

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ELECTRICITY an EBITDA of 500 million euros every year, in 2016 it will be at least 500 million euros, so obviously if you multiply EBITDA with a multiplying factor of either 10 or 15, this gives you the sum of 500 or 750 million euros. This is the market value of Hidroelectrica today, somewhere between 5-7.5 billion euros. How is the company perceived abroad, given that you had meetings with investors from New York to Tokyo? Hidroelectrica is the Prom Queen, wherever the party is. In New York, Tokyo, London, Paris or Bucharest. It is a company that is making history. It is by far the most profitable company in Romania and even by comparison with other similar companies it has much better results. If we were to compare Hidroelectrica last year with two energy colossi at European level, with Fortum, a company of 13 billion euros, owned by the Finnish State, declared in 2014 the most efficient energy company in the world, and with Verbund, a company owned by the Austrian State, also on hydro, Hidroelectrica recorded an EBIDTA of 63% versus an EBIDTA of 37% for Fortum and, respectively, 21% for Verbund. We’re talking about a company that was 2-3 times more profitable than the other two companies, which have a turnover of some tens of times higher than the figure generated by Hidroelectrica. This is well known in this very exclusive circle of investment funds or investment banks. The listing of Hidroelectrica is the major event of 2016 or is the most expected event on the capital market, not only in Romania, but also globally. From this point of view, the listing of Hidroelectrica will be a great success; it will represent virtually the most successful listing of a company after 1990, regardless of where it is done, in Bucharest only or in the dual system, in Bucharest and in London. In my opinion, the evolution of Hidroelectrica is very encouraging, not artificial or conjunctural, but the sign of a sustainable evolution. We are talking here of a thorough reorganization which effectively strengthens the financial indicators of Hidroelectrica and will maintain it on this positive 98

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ground/threshold for many years to come. For Hidroelectrica investors would come wherever the listing was done, so I would say that it would be enough if it was done in Bucharest. We should consider the input that listing Hidroelectrica would generate at the Bucharest Stock Exchange. We have been struggling helplessly for a few years now in this area of border stock exchanges, without being able to upgrade ourselves, to move on to the next level, to emerging stock exchanges, to emerging markets. This is a problem that pertains more to the shareholders and an

Hidroelectrica was in a desperate situation, it had contractual obligations which amounted to 20 TW, and unfortunately the production of Hidroelectrica had an absolutely negative output record, 11.8 TW. In order to cope with those contractual obligations, Hidroelectrica had to buy power from other markets, penalizing markets, it bought at 300-350 lei MW, it bought energy from the thermal producers at prices ranging between 280-320 lei, it bought on the next day market at prices between 220-250 lei to sell, at a loss, to the smart guys, at prices ranging

Today, Hidroelectrica is not an insolvency company, Hidroelectrica has no debt, Hidroelectrica has recorded the highest profit achieved by a company in Romania. issue of opportunity, an issue of marketing and visibility. I won’t reject a priori the possibility of a dual-listing Bucharest – London. Fondul Proprietatea, which holds a minority package of 20% of the share capital, is listed on the London Stock Exchange, so it may be a useful image exercise for Hidroelectrica and the Romanian State if such a dual listing can generate more visibility and bring more money. I obviously cannot be against it. You mentioned at the beginning that you took over a company in insolvency proceedings, what was the most difficult thing to change in Hidroelectrica? In general, the State companies have oversized and supra-remunerated schemes. Things in the State companies often go at an inertial pace and then there appear a lot of self-sufficient and blaze attitudes, which are incompatible with high levels of performance. In Hidroelectrica there were many irregularities, we did not wage war against 11 smart guys, against the energy traders, we denounced 487 contracts, so in reality we have been waging war against almost 500 smart guys who are not alone in the world, behind them there are force structures and all sorts of interests, cooperatives and connivances. In 2012,

between 103-132 lei. Evidently, such a trade led Hidroelectrica straight into bankruptcy, as already in June 2012 it was in default. In 2012 we had a cost price of 184 lei/MW and sold at a loss to the smart guys. Hidroelectrica tried to negotiate those clauses, prior to the opening of insolvency proceedings, to request a deferral in respect of the delivery of those amounts that it could not actually deliver. It was a force majeure case, it had activated the force majeure clause, on the Danube there were recorded the lowest flows of the last 150 years, it was a cruel, widespread drought, a pluviometric and hydrological regime such as had never seen for decades and yet it did not receive sympathetic responses. After launching the insolvency procedure, we had to fight with these firms that parasitically fed on Hidroelectrica, we had to denounce their contracts, and these they lodged 75 complaints against the measures of the judicial administrator. 71 have been settled definitively in favour of Hidroelectrica. The exit from insolvency was subject and is still subject today exclusively to the resolution of these disputes. Today, Hidroelectrica is not an insolvency company, Hidroelectrica has no debt, Hidroelectrica has recorded the highest profit achieved by a company in Romania. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

ELECTRICITY

You evolved during the period of insolvency within a legislative framework that lacked predictability, with excessive taxation. How did you adjust, during this period, your reorganization plan, taking into account all the external factors? Without the taxes invented overnight by the Government, whichever it was, Hidroelectrica would report a profit of 450 million euros every year. Such fees and charges do nothing but steal from the other shareholder(s), after listing. These charges and fares are likely to make a dramatic impact on the financial performance of Hidroelectrica, they are likely to erode the company’s profits, but first and foremost they are likely to decrease the competitiveness of Hidroelectrica in relation to the other producers. It’s a discriminatory treatment, both inside the country and abroad. We pay every year around 100 million euros on machining water, which is aberrant and means a 21 lei impact on cost. Of the 28 States of the European Union, there is a tax on water in only four. In the other three States, the level of taxation is reasonable. To give an example, in France, which has a similar mechanism to that of Romania, the tax is 15 eurocents per million cubic metres, while in Romania - it is 25 eurocents per 1000 mc, i.e. 1,500 times more. Producers of wind and photovoltaic power pay no tax; moreover, they are given a bonus by the Romanian State, 2-3 green certificates. After all, water is a natural source like the sun and the wind. In relation to competitors from other countries, some markets were interconnected in 2014 Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia. Producers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary do not pay tax on machining water; they do not pay any pole fee or a tax on special constructions. We are talking about a 100 million euro tax on machining water, not to mention yet another 40 million for the euro tax that goes to the State budget, and a further 60 million euros which go to the local administrations. From the profit of Hidroelectrica, the amount of 200 million euros is paid as tax, which, cumulated, means a 32 lei impact on the production cost. The price of energy will decrease, and under these circumstances every leu counts in terms of efficiency. 99


ELECTRICITY

WITH THE SUPPORT OF:

Ovidiu Agliceru, General Manager of Hidroelectrica SA

“I WISH THE ROMANIAN INDUSTRY WOULD EMBARK ON A RISING TREND” Ovidiu Agliceru has a history of nearly 30 years in Hidroelectrica SA. In August 1986, he arrived in the company as an intern at the Râul Mare Hydroelectric Plant. Today he is leading, from the position of General Manager, the destiny of one of the most important producers of electricity in Romania. He has talked to us about the steps that must be made in order for Hidroelectrica to become a leading company in the European, if not in the global hydroenergy sector.

H

ow has the plan for the reorganization of Hidroelectrica’s activity been adapted to the market conditions of 2016, with a projection towards 20202030, in terms of the diversification of services, the purchase of other production capacities, or even the implementation of storage technologies, etc.? We have five hydropower power plants on the Olt River, the lower Olt. These hydropower plants have a total installed power of 250 MW, they have been retechnologized and can function both as a generator and in a pumping regime, but unfortunately the current rules of the market, in conjunction with the insignificant price difference between the base and the peak, do not render as efficient, at the moment, their functioning in a pumping regime, in other words, their functioning on the basis of energy storage. Because Hidroelectrica has a huge system balancing capacity, we bear in mind the possibility of acquiring wind and solar power parks, which could work in tandem with the hydropower plants from Hidroelectrica. Hidroelectrica could make up for the main weakness of these installations from the solar and wind parks: the lack of a balancing potential. In such a situation, for Hidroelectrica, wind and solar parks would prove efficient and would increase the company’s efficiency. During this period several investment, modernization or retechnologization projects are underway. What will this mean in terms of enhancing electricity 100

production capacities, the overall productivity of the company and, not least, the cost of production? First, I shall refer to retechnologization. The investment program of Hidrolectrica includes four major retechnologization projects, the upgrading of some hydropower plants that were put into service in 1960-1970 and have concluded their normal lifespan. These hydropower plants are going to be retechnologized. These projects, totalling 300 million euros, are the following: the Stejaru Hydropower Plant, with a power of 220 MW, which is undergoing retechnologization, the contract having been signed last year. In two to three weeks (the interview was conducted on 21 April 2016) the second auction for the retechnologization of the Vidraru Hydropower Plant will appear in SEAP; it has four groups of 55 MW and an installed power of 220 MW. This year we will also deal submit for auction and probably contract the executant for the Râul Mare Retezat Hydropower Plant. As regards this plant, the two groups of 165 MW have never attained their design parameters, functioning with 100 and, respectively, 110 MW per unit, and if you consider that in the other retechnologizations the improvement of the indicators means yield growth, here we are talking of a retechnologization that will bring an increase of 150 MW. What will the other retechnologizations bring? Enhanced yield paarmeters, in the first place, and an increase in the possibility of supplying system technological services, secondary

adjustment and voltage adjustment. The next retechnologization, which will probably be published at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, is the Mărişelu Hydropower Station, with three groups of 75 MW. In total, 1000 MW through retechnologization, worth about 300 million euros. The investment program also includes launching into service new capacities, we are talking about four investment objectives; the Bretea Hydropower Station will be completed later this year; the Răstolița and Racovița Hydropower Stations will follow next year and the group of 55 MW from the Nehoiaşu Hydropower Plant, the Surduc waterfall, will be completed in 2018. The Hydropower Plant in Răstolita was to be completed this year, but the works are delayed because of regulatory bottlenecks. What’s happening, more specifically? We’re talking about the Government ordinance relating to the expropriation corridor, the area of land at the bottom of the future accumulation lake. This Government ordinance has not been published. Although the documentation in question has been on the circuit for three years, every time a decisionmaker changes in the Ministry, we have to resume the procedure. Last year we had almost managed to get to a final phase with the issuance of approvals for the documentation concerned, but somewhere in the middle of last year, the documents had to return to the Energy Ministry because the assessment had lost its validity - the assessment of the areas WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY

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that were to be expropriated. We had to resume the assessment procedure. These are the legislative difficulties. At the moment, the expropriation corridor does not exist, the bottom of the lake is wooded, and this will cause a delay because after the Government ordinance is issued, next will come the procedures for the expropriation and deforestation of that area. How have you managed the maintenance costs for the hydropower stations in recent years, taking into account that many of these are old and need repairs if they are to be brought into service and operate efficiently? First of all I want to make a statement about the peculiar situation of Hidroelectrica, which has managed its own repairs since its establishment. The creation of Hydroserve as a selfstanding commercial company has generated a few advantages in terms of the organization of the repair activity. If up until 20112012, the 8 Hydroserves had spent 100-110 million euros annually, after switching to the efficiency enhancement program, the same volume of necessary and opportune works, or an even larger volume, at fair prices, is carried out by Hydroserve today at prices of 40-45 million euros annually. It has been proved that this is Hidroelectrica’s real maintenance need. What we have done compared to what we used to do before? We have insisted on the quality of repair works. At the level of Hidroelectrica, a year ago we set up a structure that deals only with reception of maintenance works. This structure is composed of experienced people who have worked in the maintenance business, in commissioning, in the assembly field and who have now the necessary qualifications for checking the quality of the executed works. This has meant a qualitative leap of maintenance works. I want to tell you that in the first months, when these men began to carry out their activity, 80% of the works that were to be received were either delayed or admitted, but with very many observations. At the moment, only 20% of the works are likely to be postponed or accepted with many comments, which means that Hydroserve has raised the qualitative standard of the work performed, and this is to the benefit of all.

What actions were undertaken during the period of insolvency to reduce operating costs and to lower this impact in the final production cost? We discussed with the unions and intervened in the personnel regulatory documents and where there were positions that were correlated with no activity or tasks, we optimized the staff requirements. We can also talk of reducing expenditure on repairs, as I pointed out before. On the other hand, we have moved to a new qualitative stage of effective utilization of our production capacities, which led to a substantial increase in the revenues. Hidroelectrica is the main provider of system technology services and has optimized its operation so as to be able to offer these services. For the first time, it has benefited from its main quality: storing energy in large accumulations. The large accumulations of Hidroelectrica can store 2 TW of electricity. That electricity sold at peak prices can result in doubling the company’s revenue. That is why, today, Hidroelectrica is much more effective than before, because what it sells it sell at the appropriate time

and at appropriate prices, using its production capacities efficiently. But in order to be able to do this, these production capacities must have a high degree of availability, that is, they should be ready or be in operation at any time this is needed. We have managed to do this and this is very visible. Hidroelectrica, at the moment, operates at load peaks, at very good prices, accumulating, during periods of load lows, at low prices. Hidroelectrica has increased its capability of intervention in these times, with increased power, which proves that, if Hidroelectrica has a high availability of equipment, it means that it has repaired it correctly. What message do you have for the industry, about the industry, and how you see the future of the Romanian hydroenergetic sector? I wish I could witness an ascending trend of the Romanian industry, of the Romanian entrepreneurship, I wish the money produced in the Romanian industry could stay in the country. I wish we could develop an industry that will include a lot of workmanship but as little raw material and energy as possible. 101


EDITORIAL

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ROMANIAN URANIUM IS SEARCHING FOR NEW DESTINATIONS The beginning of 2016 was difficult and complicated for National Uranium Company (CNU), the sole manufacturer of sintered uranium powder in the European Union. The company, wholly owned by the Romanian State, through the Ministry of Energy, has lost its contract with the National Company Nuclearelectrica, the sole buyer, in fact. The rescission of the contract means the disruption of a complete nuclear cycle, which represented a strategic and competitive advantage for Romania.

T

he problems began from a final decision of the High Court of Cassation and Justice, issued in November of last year, which maintained the measures with major financial implications imposed by the Court of Auditors following the control undertaken in 2012 (Decision S*83/2012). Those measures led to an increase in selling price, according to the information received by CNU. “Up until the enforcement of the irrevocable decision of HCCJ, the share of the obligation to the State budget from the sale price of sintered uranium dioxide powder to the National Company Nuclearelectrica was 10%, compared to 80% after its enforcement”, the officials of CNU claim. As a result of this Court decision, CNU has recalculated the price of uranium dioxide powder, informed Nuclearelectrica, its only buyer, and launched the price renegotiation procedure. According to Nuclearelectrica, “CNU notified SNN that it no longer can accomplish the delivery of UO2 at the negotiated price and agreed with SNN on a price of 475 lei/kg, informing SNN that it would not

deliver the UO2 for the month of December 2015. From the point of view of ensuring the functioning of the Nuclear Fuel Factory (FCN) Pitești and the operation of the Nuclear-Electric Power Plant (CNE) Cernavodă under safe conditions, the refusal of delivering UO2, the failure to meet the delivery deadlines and respect the contract terms pose risks for the continued functioning of FCN Pitești and for the normal operation of CNE Cernavodă, risks that SNN, a company which supplies 20% of Romania’s energy consumption needs, must manage in a very responsible manner and in compliance with the legal conditions”. Negotiations with Nuclearelectrica failed, as this company decided the rescission of the contract two days before the end of last year, not before the nuclear power producer made one more attempt, inviting the CNU to file a reasoned offer for the procedure of sintered uranium dioxide powder acquisition. The offer was declared admissible, but lost, as the criterion was the lowest price. The price offered by CNU was in December 76% higher than the price

agreed in the contract, which would have led to Nuclearelectrica selling electricity below the production cost and even incurring losses. “In its capacity as an economic operator, responsible for protecting its own interests and the interests of its employees, as well as those of its shareholders and investors, SNN is obligated to manage responsibly the funds of the company and the acquisition at the price offered by CNU, 76% higher than the one in the contract, would have meant an unsustainable increase of the costs and even financial losses”, according to Daniela Lulache, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica. According to the contract between CNU and Nuclearelectica, concluded in 2014, the former was to provide, for 3 years, sintered uranium dioxide powder at a price of 475 lei/ kg. The price could be adjusted no more than once every 12 months, through negotiation, in justified cases, amendments being added to the contract with the agreement of the parties, as the representatives of Nuclearelectrica maintain. Accordingly, the new supplier of Nuclearelectrica, designated following 103


ELECTRICITY a competitive emergency procedure, is the Canadian Company Cameco Inc. “The contract concluded with Cameco Inc involves the delivery of 120 t of UO2 powder for a period of only six months, representing the raw material needed for half a year. This clearly indicated that the conclusion of this contract was actually the only solution left to ensure raw material for SNN so as not to cause any disruptions in production. (...) During

this period of six months, until NNS will hold a new procurement procedure, CNU has the necessary time to rethink its tendering strategy and participate with a competitive price in the procedure. Currently, SNN has ensured the UO2 necessary for operation under normal conditions. Under the terms of the contract, SNN may not disclose the tendered price without the consent of Cameco, but this price is very close to the price in the initial contract with CNU, being thus a market price. There is no major impact on fuel costs, so there is no impact on the price, the consumers’ price implicitly. On 2 March, CNU announced that it had been facing serious financial

problems, stemming, apart from the loss of its only customer, by the cessation, as of 2011, of the subsidy granted to this sector (for social protection, for the storage/ inventory management of uranium concentrates), by the lack of funds for investment in the existing installations, by the blocking of investment objectives concerning the opening and entry into service of new uranium deposits, as the representatives of the company revealed. In this context, the Ministry of Energy announced on 11 March the setting up, under the decision of Minister Victor Grigorescu, of the Coordinating Committee for the mining domain, with the purpose of analyzing the current state of the mineral energy resources sector – coal and uranium. “The Committee will propose streamlining and reorganization measures, in order to meet the demand for energy resources necessary for achieving Romania’s objectives of energy security, competitiveness and sustainability”, the press release of the Ministry also stated.

Will be new explotation opened? CNU has uranium mineral resources under administration and carries out the following activities: the exploitation of uranium deposits, the preparation and obtaining of uraniferous concentrates, the refining of uranium technical concentrates and the valorization of the sintered uranium dioxide powder, as well as conservation activities, the shutdown and greening of the mining exploitations whose activity has ceased. Currently, the only active uranium exploitation in Romania is in Suceava

KEY FIGURES SN NUCLEARELECTRICA Annual production: 10.81 TW Shareholders: Ministry of Energy - 82.4959%, Proprietatea Fund - 9.0903%, other shareholders - 8.4138% Amount of energy sold (GWh) 10.781 Exploitation revenue: 1,782,998,000 Net profit: 141,947,622 (+ 12%) EBITDA 653,902,000 (+ 9%) EBIT 160,139,000 (-9%) Source: Annual report on the financial year concluded on 31 December 2015, communicated by SN Nuclearelectrica on 26 April 2016 to the Bucharest Stock Exchange

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County and it ensures the production of uraniferous ore by exploiting two mineralized structures: Crucea and Botușana. Having been in operation for 26 years, the Crucea-Botușana ore deposit is nearing exhaustion. The two structures will enter a closure and greening program, as it is stated in the Analysis of the current stage of the Romanian energy system, a document issued by the Romanian Ministry of Energy in February 2016. CNU envisaged opening new areas of exploitation in the Eastern Carpathian area, such as the one at Grinţieş, in Neamţ County, as well as the installation of new processing and refining plants, with advanced technology, that will replace the current installations on the Feldioara platform, in Braşov County. The Feldioara platform ensures the processing of uranium ore in the plant for processing uraniferous ores, where the technical concentrate of sodium diuranate is obtained, and in the plant for processing uranium technical concentrates, where the products obtained are: uranium octoxide (intermediate product) and sintered uranium dioxide powder (the raw material for producing the nuclear fuel required by nuclear-electric power plants of the CANDU type). An economic analysis will nonetheless underlie the decision to open the new perimeters and/or to adopt the solution of importing uranium ore or uranium octoxide (U3O8).

Nuclearelectrica ensures 20% of Romania’s electricity production Nuclearelectrica is today among the top 5 producers of nuclear energy globally. Annually, the company produces a constant amount of energy, approximately 11 TW (10.81 in 2015, down by 1% compared with 2014), which represents 20% of Romania’s total consumption. The company sells energy on two market segments: the regulated market, where both the quantity and the price are set by the National Regulatory Authority in the Field of Energy, and the free market, where the price is decided in terms of supply and demand. “When I came into office, in 2013, Nuclearelectrica was selling 50% of its production on the regulated market and 50% on the free market. In terms of the WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY price, the price on the competitive market was much higher than that of the competitive marketplace in 2013. According to the timetable for the total liberalization of the energy market, the percentage of production that SNN was to sell on the regulated market was to decrease from year to year, until the end of 2017, when the total liberalization of the energy market was scheduled to take place. That actually happened: from 50% in 2013, we dropped to 35% in 2014, to 21% in 2015 and to 14% in 2016,” as Daniela Lulache, General Manager of the company, has emphasized.

64 nuclear reactors under construction Worldwide there are in operation 444 reactors, with an installed capacity of 386,276 MW. The United States of America holds the first place in this regard, with 25% of the total nuclear capacity worldwide, 99,185 MW. Next comes France, with 63,130 MW, followed by Japan, with 40,290 MW, according to data centralized by the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to the same source, 157 reactors have been shut down and 64 reactors are under construction, with a total capacity of 63,010 MW.

Country ARGENTINA

Number of Reactors

Total Net Electrical Capacity [MW]

1

25

The project for the retechnologization of Unit 1

BELARUS

2

2218

BRAZIL

1

1245

Nuclearelectrica owns the Nuclear Fuel Factory in Piteşti, Argeş County, and the Nuclear-Electric Power Plant in Cernavodă, which has two reactors. Unit 1 of NPP Cernavodă went into commercial operation in 1996, while Unit 2 - in 2007. Units 1 and 2 of NPP had an initial life span of 30 years, which can be extended by another 25-30 years, after a complex process. For Unit 1, SNN has already launched the analytical process with a view to this retechnologization, because this entails complex technical analyses of the equipment, but also establishing a financing structure. “We estimate that the technical analyses will be completed by the end of 2017, and their findings will determine the exact period of shut-down for Unit 1 so that we can initiate the retechnologization process. At present, based on an intercomparison method, benchmarking with other international nuclear units, and based on the capacity factor according to the project, SNN estimates that Unit 1 will be effectively shut down in around 2025-2026. The effective shutdown will last 1.5 to 2 years, and the costs estimated through benchmarking will be around 1.2-1.5 billion euros”, as Daniela Lulache, General Manager of the company, shows. The financing structure will take into consideration internal and external sources (loans), the capacity for contracting external financing sources being facilitated in the 2020s by the repayment of the loans for the construction of Unit 2. The company also plans to develop a gigantic project for the construction

CHINA

22

22110

FINLAND

1

1600

FRANCE

1

1630

INDIA

6

3907

JAPAN

2

2650

KOREA, REPUBLIC OF

3

4020

PAKISTAN

2

630

RUSSIA

8

6582

SLOVAKIA

2

880

UKRAINE

2

1900

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

4

5380

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

5

5633

64

63010

Total

Source: International Atomic Energy Agency of two new nuclear reactors at Cernavodă, whose details are offered in the interview granted by Daniela Lulache, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica. SNN has an investment plan for the period 2013-2017. These investments are aimed to maintain and constantly improve the level of nuclear safety, as this is the company’s priority. Investments will also be made in expanding the system of physical protection, the Intermediary Storage Facility for Burned Fuel, and improving the response of NPP Cernavodă to external events beyond the design bases, post Fukushima. Annually, on average, the value of these investment projects is 250 million lei. Annually, over 80% of the investments are made at NPP Cernavodă.

Nuclearelectrica was listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2013, when the market price was much higher. In conjunction with the liberalization of the energy market, this has resulted in sustained growth estimates for the company. “Along the way, after the listing, besides the price decrease and the related impacts, there appeared tax changes, which at the time of the listing had not even been anticipated. All this affected the financial result, which resulted in the decrease of the share prices. Even in this market context, we managed to have an increase in profit, through the adoption of internal measures. From an operational point of view, Nuclearelectrica is today among the top 5 producers of nuclear energy globally”, according to the General Manager of the company. 105


ELECTRICITY

DANIELA LULACHE BELIEVES IN THE FUTURE OF NUCLEAR POWER PRODUCERS Daniela Lulache, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica National Company, one of the leading producers of electric power in Romania, claims that according to labor force estimates, 16,000 jobs will be occupied in the national industry for the completion of the Cernavoda 3 and 4 Units. From an operational point of view, Nuclearelectrica is today among the top 5 producers of nuclear energy globally.

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he “Corporate Governance Company of the Year” Award, granted to Nuclearelectrica National Company by The European publication at the “Global Banking & Finance Awards 2015”, is a recognition of the company’s outstanding results in relation to its competitors in the field. Which were, in your opinion, the major achievements of the company you are leading in the competition with other international players on the market? When I took office, one of my goals - in conjunction with the listing of Nuclearelectrica on the capital market, shortly after recruitment - was to change perceptions about the company. I had known the company ever since I worked for the Proprietatea Fund, I was aware of its technical results and could realize what its potential for change was. A change of perception was possible through the enforcement of consistent, ample corporate governance measures (management accountability, management activism towards representing and defending the company’s interests, integrated management and total transparency) which would lead in time to Nuclearelectrica no longer being labeled a “state-owned company” that does not function, that does not evolve, or that does not operate according to the specific corporate rules and standards at international level. Starting in 2013, we have established and gradually implemented corporate governance measures, either as a necessity assessed and determined by the management, or as a requirement related to capital market rules. This is a continuous process and it’s only natural to be so. There is always something to improve. We are glad

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that our efforts and, especially, our results are visible. I believe our advantages stem from the synergy created between the norms and standards of the nuclear industry, applicable at the international level, and those pertaining to the corporate governance of a modern company, oriented towards a high position on the market and aiming for the total transparency of management actions. This complementarity is, from my point of view, unique in Romania, and it involves continuous, relentless efforts. You took over a profitable company in 2013 and, during your first year in office, you managed to obtain a profit that was over 10 times higher than in the previous year. Moreover, you maintained a high profit over the next years. What was the most difficult thing to change in the company when you took office? Any complex process of corporate efficiency improvement is difficult. Change, even when it is thoroughly communicated and explained, involves a certain amount of inertia when applied to an environment that is too accustomed to a certain state of affairs. But this is a natural consequence that has been dealt with in time. Financial results, because that’s what we are talking about now, are based on a strategy. We managed, indeed, to obtain a historic profit in 2013. This was the result of a series of internal efforts and of a particular market context. Unfortunately, it was difficult to achieve the same result over the following years. Adjusted internal efforts cannot eliminate market challenges. And when I say challenges I mean the gradual decrease in the price of energy on the competitive market. Nuclearelectrica cannot produce

more than its installed capacity, it cannot significantly reduce costs because nuclear safety is our priority. Nuclearelectrica has an investment plan. Most of these investments are made in nuclear safety, and follow this plan to the letter. The goal at present is to identify alternative solutions for growth and to conduct analyses in this respect. To conclude, internal change and adjustment were not difficult, nor should they be, because this is what professional management must do. The impact of external factors is difficult to control, but we are determined to be a voice that demands change where things do not work. You have achieved historic profits for Nuclearelectrica, but also for a state-owned company in general, on a market that has been affected, in recent years, by a lack of predictability, excessive taxation and other negatively impacting external factors. To meet all these challenges during the adjustment period, what did you have to change “on the fly”? This is precisely the big problem, as you say: adjustments “on the fly”. This adjustment on the fly, which we were forced to make in order to stave off the impact of external factors as best as we could, has nothing in common with the setting of objectives and the enforcement of measures that would ensure a predictable growth path. It causes, on the contrary, cracks in this line of development, because you’re forced to change, to adapt, to apply measures in order to save, but not to grow. This context is still maintained at present and we are trying to raise awareness, in any way possible, about these problems, which, indeed, can be solved through legislative, regulatory changes. We WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


Currently, the 130 nuclear units existing in 14 Member States generate about 27% of the electricity produced in the European Union, accounting for over 50% of low carbon electricity. Daniela Lulache, General Manager of Nuclearelectrica National Company 107


ELECTRICITY managed to have profit growth year after year even in this context, but Nuclearelectrica is a company that can accomplish much more on condition that we create a truly competitive environment and we facilitate the growth of producers by establishing a fair regulatory framework. Given that you produce constant amounts of electric power and you have assumed the maximization of the company’s profit as the goal of your mandate, how have you adapted the management plan from the beginning of your term in office to the market condition of 2016, with a projection towards 2020-2030, in terms of the diversification of services, the purchase of other production capacities, and even the implementation of storage technologies, etc.? In 2013, considering the high price on the competitive market compared with the price on regulated market, the estimates suggested a constant financial growth by increasing the percentage of energy sold on the competitive market. However, given the strong influence of subsidies for renewable energy, competitive market prices started to drop heavily, from an average price of 200 lei/MWh to 158 lei/MWh at the end of 2015. Obviously, this impact was reflected in the financial results. In such a context, we immediately thought how we could diversify. Diversification means identifying opportunities that can create synergies with the primary activity of SNN, but such opportunities are rather few in Romania. The acquisition of some of Enel’s assets in Romania was a diversification project in which we became involved, a project that we wanted to carry through, but, unfortunately, Enel changed its mind about selling its assets in Romania. At present, we are analyzing the possibility of using the supply license. If the findings of these analyses say that there is a potential for growth, for added value, we will use the supply license. Regarding the current projects of SNN, they are defined in the administration plan assumed at the beginning of my term and represent priority investments for improving performance, increasing nuclear security and extending the life of Unit 1 of the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda. 108

Still, in addition to the measure of diversification, we need to correct the dysfunctionalities of the energy market. The fact that a producer decides in favor of diversification does not mean that market problems will disappear, nor is it all right to adopt an alternative solution to camouflage what is not working. Diversification is a managerial decision, adopted because it generates a series of financial advantages and not only, and because it is an additional source of revenue on a functional market. We want to have, above all, a functional and truly competitive market, to ensure the maximum capitalization of the core activity at SNN, and to come up with alternative solutions for this maximum capitalization, instead of seeking solutions for covering some lacks. I believe that, in the future, the supply of various services ranging from electricity to Internet, telephone and cable can become unified, generating a single invoice for customers, SNN being interested in the possibility of gathering together such services under the umbrella of several suppliers. The representatives of Nuclearelectrica SA have expressed, on numerous occasions, their dissatisfaction with the obligation of selling electricity exclusively on OPCOM and not directly. In your opinion, what amendments should be brought to Law 123 and what fiscal barriers should be removed in order for Nuclearelectrica to become a powerful regional player? If these legislative and fiscal barriers were to be removed, how much electricity could be exported by Nuclearelectrica? What potential does Nuclearelectrica have to produce more electricity for export if the two existing units underwent retechnologization? What the representatives of Nuclearelectrica advocated was: the need to correct market dysfunctions, in other words, the creation of a fair regulatory framework for all sources, which can lead to the emergence of real competition on the market. Hence, the current dissatisfaction regarding the obligation to sell only on OPCOM, which entails the limitation of competitiveness and imposes constraints on the possibility of valorizing production in optimal conditions. In another order of ideas, there’s a negative perception of direct bilateral

contracts. From my point of view, today, this not justified. Direct contracts as a market instrument are quite natural. Beyond this perception, this type of contract is a must for large investments projects. Bilateral contracts, most of which are long-term contracts, ensure the predictability of revenue, optimize the amount traded, especially during periods of planned and unplanned shutdowns. On the European common market, this type of contract is a fundamental instrument, and not being able to use it implies a position of discrimination compared to other participants in this market. Moreover, the possibility of diversification for growth is equally present in the company’s strategy and this type of contracts would allow transfers within the newly created group through diversification. We must realize that such contracts are part of a natural mechanism of the market, which can be used, with good faith, to the producers’ advantage. What is also needed is to amend legislation in the sense of allowing direct energy exports. This measure takes into account the optimum valorization of the production obtained after the completion of Units 3 and 4 at the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda. Removing legislative and fiscal barriers (exempting nuclear units from inclusion in the definition WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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of service buildings) will foster financial growth and the exploitation of production through access to a new market context. The technological upgrading of the two units at the end of the 30-year life span, that is, the extension of this duration by another 25-30 years, does not imply a change in the installed capacity; it means maintaining the current production capacity. Through the technology currently used, and through subsequent retechnologization, the two units of the Cernavoda NPP will not produce more than they are currently producing. The installed capacity is 700 MW/unit. Last November, Nuclearelectrica signed with China General Nuclear Power Corporation a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the construction of Units 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda NPP. In what stage is the establishment of this joint company? In the summer of 2014, the Romanian Government launched a new Strategy for the Continuation of Cernavoda NPP Units 3 and 4 Project, a strategy which provided for launching a procedure for the selection of potential investors interested in developing new nuclear projects. The selection procedure was launched in August 2014, the first stage being the qualifications of

potential investors. In accordance with the practice and complex requirements of a nuclear project, the qualification requirements set by NPP considered two major aspects: the financial capability and the technical capability of the potential investor, as well as their expertise in developing new nuclear projects, given the complexity of developing such a project. The only investor that participated in this selection procedure and passed the qualification requirements was the Chinese company China General Nuclear Power Corporation, the same company that is also involved as an investor in the development of the British nuclear project from Hinkley Point C. Because it fulfilled all the qualification criteria, the Chinese company was selected as an investor. Strategy for the Continuation of the Project also provides for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the joint implementation of Units 3 and 4 of NPP Cernavoda, a document which establishes the major coordinates for implementing the Project, including the possibility of determining the structure of financing and the construction process, from a technical point of view. This Memorandum of Understanding was approved by the Government of Romania on 2 September 2015 and was signed by the parties involved in the Project development, NPP

and CGN, in November 2015, being subsequently approved by the NPP General Assembly of Shareholders. Currently, both companies, NPP and CGN, are in the last stage of the selection Procedure, namely the negotiation of the Investors’ Agreement and of the Articles of Incorporation for the establishment of the new project company. According to the Strategy for the Continuation of the Project, the new project company will be a Joint Venture in which the selected investor, CGN, will have at least 51% of the share capital. NPP will contribute with the amount of only 2 million euros, the cash contribution to the share capital of the new company, the rest of NPP’s contribution being in kind, with the assets existing on location at NPP Cernavoda. The process of negotiating the Investors’ Agreement and the Articles of Incorporation of the new project company is complex and must be treated with maximum responsibility, because these documents will determine the robustness of the new project and the advantages of the Romanian partner. NPP estimates that this negotiation project will be completed by the end of 2016, initiating the establishment of the new project company. After the establishment of the project company, NPP estimates that if things go according to the time schedule, without the appearance of any disruptive external factors, within 2 years since the founding of the new project company, the two companies involved (and the Romanian State, a regards the creation of a support mechanism) will complete the financing structure and the procedure for the selection of a contractor for the civil engineering, construction and procurement services, which form the basis of the subsequent phase of construction. You stated that a support mechanism for the project of building the two units at Cernavoda could be the contract for difference, given that there is the precedent of Hinkley Point in the United Kingdom. What does the application of this contract for difference involve in the case of the project of Units 3 and 4 in Cernavoda? What other support schemes could sustain such an investment whose recovery horizon is one of decades? 109


ELECTRICITY The Contract for difference is a derived financial mechanism that relates to the market prices, which does not over-compensate, does not guarantee a discretionary profit and includes risks associated with any other mechanism based on market data: • It is a dual mechanism whereby the producer receives the “difference” between a guaranteed price (called the “strike price”) and the reference price (representing an average of the market prices) only if the strike price is higher than the reference price. In the reverse situation, in which the reference price is higher than the strike price, the producer pays the “difference”; • The level of the guaranteed price (strike price) is established in such a way as to make possible covering the operating and financial costs, the recovery of investment, and a yield to investors that is proportional with the risks taken; • The mechanism is revised periodically so that the level of the strike price can be adjusted if the investment and operation costs turn out to be lower than originally estimated, in order to avoid overcompensation; • The reference price is the market price established a year before in order to reflect the estimated price of energy, based on the average market prices; • It does not remove the producer’s obligation of direct energy selling, exposing thus the producer to the inherent market risks (production takeover is not guaranteed); • It reduced the financing costs of the project, due to a lower business risk, with positive effects for the price of energy; • It provides contractual protection against legislative and energy policy changes, controlling the risk of deficiencies in the regulations; • It enables, through implementation, the creation of a competitive framework for all sources of energy with low CO2 emissions (a contract applicable for renewable, nuclear and CCS energy); • It does not guarantee a fixed revenue level (feed in tariff), overall, or a fixed level of profits. If the reference price of energy is lower than the level of the guaranteed price (strike price), the difference will be transferred to the electricity suppliers, pro-rata with their share on the market. Since this is a dual mechanism, if the reference market price is higher than the level 110

of the strike price, the consumers are the ones who benefit because the producer is bound to pay this “difference”. This funding support mechanism is envisioned in the Strategy for the Continuation of Cernavoda NPP Units 3 and 4 Project. It’s a mechanism that has already been approved by the EC for the project in the United Kingdom, with direct applicability in the nuclear industry, so we intend to have a similar course for Units 3 and 4 by notifying EC with regard to our intention of using this mechanism. While in Europe there are still projects for new nuclear installations, globally there is a certain reluctance towards these investments because of the high costs. What are your arguments in supporting the feasibility of this project? NPP is a beneficiary of the development of the Units 3 and 4 Project by capitalizing on the existing assets, which are currently not producing any kind of value, by operating reactors 3 and 4 and by supplying the fuel necessary for the operation of these units, the fuel being produced by NPP at its FCN subsidiary in Pitesti. Beyond the clear benefits of the NPP in the development of this project, Units 3 and 4 represent a major strategic investment for the Romanian State, in the long run, taking into consideration the changing European energy policy and strategy, as well as the reduction of carbon emissions by 40% until 2030. Also, considering the prerogative of the EU Member States of determining their own energy mix, Romania is interested in and needs a balanced energy mix that will ensure its supply security, energetic independence, the stability of the system and a more affordable price for the end consumer. For these reasons, NPP objectively considers that Romania needs longterm stable production, able to meet the requirements of decarbonization and to ensure, simultaneously, the other system necessities. Nuclear energy is the only source that meets all these criteria. In March 2016, there are 440 nuclear reactors operating worldwide, 65 under construction and 173 that are planned. Thus, we can notice a growing interest, not a reluctance to develop new nuclear capacities.

Currently, the 130 nuclear units existing in 14 Member States generate about 27% of the electricity produced in the European Union, accounting for over 50% of low carbon electricity. A significant reduction in carbon emissions, coupled with an increase in energy demand, can only happen with the contribution of nuclear energy along with other low carbon energy sources. Romania, where nuclear energy ensured 18.5% of the electricity production in 2014, is somewhere in the middle of the “nuclear” top, behind countries like France (76.9%), Slovakia (56.8%), Hungary (53.6%), Belgium (47.5%), Sweden (41.5%), Finland (34.76%), Czech Republic (35.8%), and Bulgaria (31.8%). With small variations, these figures are also valid today. There is an international reorientation of the states with a tradition in the oil industry towards the development of nuclear power projects. The criteria are equally related to economic-financial aspects (it is rather expensive to build nuclear units, but lifelong operation is profitable, and the costs are greatly reduced compared to other sources), to the availability of classical resources in the long run, and to the development of a stable and reliable sources. These states have to develop from scratch the infrastructure necessary for a nuclear project. Romania has the great advantage of an existing infrastructure and of highly qualified human resources, with operating expertise. At present, China is the world’s largest builder of nuclear power plants. Japan is relaunching its nuclear program, having realized its difficulties in supplying energy and the growing CO2 emissions after the shutdown of its reactors in 2011. New nuclear projects with various technologies are thus under construction all over the world. The participation of the Romanian industry in completing Units 3 and 4 at the plant in Cernavoda, estimated at 25-30% of the value of engineering works, component production and construction, would have a particularly favorable impact on the national economy, since it is well known that investments lead to GDP growth, the creation of new jobs, additional revenue for the State budget, which could have a multiplying effect at the level of WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY the economy. This participation may produce a revival of direct investments in the Romanian companies interested in participating in the completion of Units 3 and 4 at Cernavoda, the modernization and/or renewal of the production equipment, as well as the hiring and training of new specialists in the field of nuclear energy and equipment manufacturing, reconnecting thus an important part of the Romanian industry to the cutting edge domain of equipment production and to the supply of services for nuclear-electrical power plants, with an impact on increasing competitiveness on the foreign markets. According to the finding of an analysis carried out by ROMATOM in 2013, the current number of jobs in the field of the horizontal nuclear industry in Romania is 8,300. To these can be added another 7,600, if orders/contracts are made for completing Units 3 and 4 in Cernavoda. In conclusion, we can estimate a total labor force of 16,000 people occupying jobs in the national industry for the completion of Units 3 and 4 in Cernavoda. A few years ago a rumor appeared concerning the merger between Nuclearelectrica and the National Uranium Company. Under the current circumstances, what are the chances for such a project to still come to fruition, given also the intention of the current Ministry of Energy to avoid the precedent of the Hunedoara Energy Complex or of the Oltenia Energy Complex (the unification of units that had not been streamlined for efficiency)? Nuclearelectrica launched a service acquisition procedure for drafting the technical-economic and juridical study for the reorganization of the exploitation sector, the processing of uranium ore processing and the production of nuclear fuel. The procedure is complex, in stages, and involves the dissemination of SSID classified information (strictly secret, of utmost importance) and entails, according to the specific legal provisions, much longer deadlines compared to ordinary ones. An example: obtaining the Industrial Security Certificate lasts, according to the law, a maximum of 180 working days. The efforts for carrying out this

study are underway. The aim of this study is an exhaustive analysis of the impact made by the reorganization of the exploitation sector, with all its advantages and disadvantages. The decision is extremely important for this sector and for both companies, and it must be based on extremely accurate data. At present, we are considering a technicalscientific study that will provide us with working data. We are not considering a merger yet. A possible merger process, based solely on the accurate economic findings of this study must be based on a series of advantages for both companies, and this is a decision that the shareholders of both companies would have to make. Of course, things are slightly more complicated in this case of Nuclearelectrica, because it is a listed company and the minority shareholders have a number of rights, like the right of withdrawal from the company in the event of a merger, a situation in which the company must redeem their shares. Also, Nuclearelectrica has contracted foreign loans, endorsed by the Romanian State, for financing the completion of Unit 2 and these loan contracts provide for a series of conditions and obligations towards the creditors, so a merger will require their prior consent. The company had a strategy after the accident in Fukushima, and you stated on various occasions that the level of safety of the power plant in Cernavoda is very high and that it has been rated even by WANO. For our readers, please specify what this very high level of safety means. The domain of nuclear security implies a complex set of technical and organizational measures designed to: • Ensure the operation of the nuclear installations in safety conditions; • Prevent and limit any damage to them; • Ensure the protection of the personnel, the population and the environment against radiation or radioactive contamination. This ensemble of technical and organizational measures must operate flawlessly 24/7, and their operation is based on human expertise, so you need a highly qualified staff that can maintain a high level of nuclear safety.

Following the international evaluation from November 2015, Nuclearelectrica, through NPP Cernavoda, ranks among the top 5 nuclear power plants worldwide. It is a remarkable performance, but there is a lot of hard work, commitment and the desire for high-level performance behind it. Basically, one cannot achieve outstanding production results without a high level of nuclear safety. A safe power plant means fewer unplanned stops, hence, long production periods. In terms of the power usage factor, since the start-up of two units of the nuclear power plant in Cernavoda, Romania has occupied for several years, through Nuclearelectrica, the first place in the world out of a total of 398 nuclear units. If you were to build a bridge across time, what would be the pillars supporting Nuclearelectrica at present? The highest level of professionalism, that is, a human resource with expertise both in the technical field, as regards the operation part, and in all related and support fields. The fact that we occupy the top position at the global level as regards the power usage factor, since the start-up of two units of the nuclear power plant, is eloquent, as are our coherent company strategy, adapted to the market, the integrated management of company-wide processes, our principles of corporate governance and, on top of all these, the permanent desire to achieve outstanding results, because we have become accustomed to international recognition and this constantly keeps us motivated. What is your message for the industry and about the industry? In order for Romania to become an important player in the energy industry at the regional level, in order for Romania to cope with the long-term changes announced by the European energy policies and strategy, it needs a vision, a strategy and investments. The energy industry in Romania needs long-term commitments from the authorities, predictability, a legislative framework that will sustain a real energy market and allow the companies to achieve the investments they need. It is on what we conceive and what we begin to accomplish today that our capacity of tomorrow, understood in all its complexity, depends. 111


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WIND TURBINE BLADES WERE SEIZED On the mild back of Dobrogea Plateau in south-eastern Romania most wind turbines have been raised in recent years on Romanian territory, which deliver energy in the National Power System, operated by Transelectrica SA, the operator of the transmission system energy electricity. After 2014, in Romania were installed almost 3,000 MW. Last year, the decline of green energy from wind source was more obvious. Moreover, Monsson Group, the largest developer of wind farms in Romania, decided to dismantle the turbines from Târguşor and put them in storage waiting for better times. Better times mean government, legislative and regulator decisions to stimulate investment in renewable energy.

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team of four energy engineers from Monsson Group leads us to one of the wind turbines that the company holds in Constanta. Monsson is the first developer of wind farms in Romania, investing over € 200 million in construction and operation of wind and photovoltaic farms, and the best thing is to learn from those who

have the richest and most relevant experience. The wind turbine that we visit is temporarily out of order for service. One by one the components of a turbine are explained to us - the mainstay secured with concrete, because the pillar that supports the blades and nacelle is a tubular steel giant weighing tens of tons and can even

75 wind farms in operation in Romania, according transelectrica.ro, these having between 0,008MW and 600MW installed capacity 2,973 MW - installed capacity in Romania (by December 31st, 2015) 3 new permits granted in 2015 with an output of 42.05 MW 1,200 is the approximate number of installed turbines € 5 billion investment in wind energy in Romania 11.03% of the total delivered energy comes from wind in 2015

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pass 100, from a minimum height of 70 m up to 120 m, the blades which, together with a hub, are forming the turbine rotor, the nacelle can be the size of a bus, and which protects the turbine components mounted on the inside - the main shaft, the revolution multiplier, brake shaft, high revolution shaft, electric generator, cooling system for the electric generator and slewing system. The ensemble of the wind turbine also has a vane located in the nacelle which is guided by the wind, anemometer with which wind speed is measured and a controller that is located in the nacelle or at the based on the pillar, which is the turbine’s computerized brain. The functioning of the components is remotely monitored with the help of the controller. More specifically, WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY Monsson Group operates in 28 countries with offices in Stockholm, Warsaw, Istanbul, Doha, Dubai or Capetown. Moreover, 7-10% of the total turnover are external operations. The group has three main activity domains: maintenance and servicing for wind and photovoltaic farms, with a portfolio of 300 active customers representing 75% of the Romanian renewable energy market, and, the only private dispatcher in Romania on the command and control area, projects and investments development and, integrated energy projects.

this system ensures turning on the wind turbine, blade tilt adjustment, braking, nacelle orientation based on wind direction and speed. Access to the top of the turbine can be done by elevator, as in the one we visit, or by leader if the turbine is too small or an older version. The

Top 3 wind electricity producers (2015) Enel Green Power Romania SRL 1,330 GWh Tomis Team SRL (CEZ Group) 777 GWh Ovidiu Development SRL (CEZ Group) 535 GWh

wind turbine is connected to the transforming station of Monsson through underground cables. From the station, electricity goes via an electric line of 110 kV underground transmission line to Enel station nearby. Explanations are broader and more technical than presented here, but these data helps us get a picture about modern windmills. Monsson Group can boasts a portfolio of projects of wind turbines with an installed capacity of 2,400 MW, about 80% of all installed capacity of Romania. Also, the largest wind farm developed in Romania bears the signature of Monsson Group, the one at Fântanele - Cogealac, with an installed capacity of 600 MW, project sold to the czechs of CEZ. At the same time, the company was also the first developer who dismantled the turbines of a wind farm, at Târguşor, and put them in storage. The park had an installed capacity of 27 MW. The decision came as the project no longer fit the original estimate economic parameters, becoming unfeasible in financial terms. Another wind farm that we visited is the one developed by Renovatio Power in Peștera village, where 30 turbines are installed, each of 3 MW. Here too, other projects to develop wind farms have stopped, intentions of investors were to install 170 turbines, but now investments are on standby, explains deputy mayor Tudorel Grosu. “It’s a shame for our area, Dobrogea, where the wind blows but we do not benefit from this source” he notes bitterly.

Moreover, Peștera village intends to become energy independent by developing its own project of a wind turbine. “I made a project for a 1.5 MW wind turbine to be installed, for the public lighting of the village, including the institutions related to the City Council - City Hall, community centers, schools. The project is worth around € 1.5 million, European funds, we are waiting for the session to open in May and, to submit the project. The project is very good for the community because we have greatly expanded public lighting, in the village we only had 50 lamps before, we now have around 500. If this wind turbine would start production, it cover the entire electricity needs, so we would be saving money” says Tudorel Grosu. The electricity bill of the village is 50,000 lei per month, although the village has developed an energy efficiency project, resulting in substantially reduced electricity consumption by removing large consumers and LED lighting development.

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ELECTRICITY Sebastian Enache, Business Development Manager of Monsson and Vice-President of the Romanian Wind Energy Association

ROMANIA CAN DOUBLE ITS GREEN ENERGY PRODUCTION CAPACITY “Green energy, whether we like it or not, has a future in Romania, it has a future in Europe and the entire planet is now choosing clean energies”, as Sebastian Enache, Business Development Manager of Monsson and Vice-President of the Romanian Wind Energy Association, points out. Romania can attract investments in units for the production of electricity from renewable sources of 3-4,000 MW.

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Romanian Wind Energy Association was founded by SC EDP RENEWABLES ROMANIA SRL (former SC RENOVATIO POWER SRL), SC WIND EXPERT SRL, SC WIND WINGS SRL, SC BLUE PLANET INVESTMENTS SRL, SC ECOLOGIC AIR SRL as Founding Members in 2008. Romanian Wind Energy Association is a voluntary entity of participants in the wind energy industry in Romania. It exists to promote the proper role for wind energy in the energy mix in Romania and, consequently, clean, secure and efficient energy for Romania. The Association indirectly represents the interests all of the various participants in the wind industry. It does not have the power to commit individual Members of the RWEA to any particular course of action or opinion. Board Members of RWEA: 4 Catalina Dragomir – President (Representing Vestas CEU Romania) 114

4 Sebastian Enache – Vice-president (Representing Monsson Group) 4 Adrian Borotea (Representing CEZ Romania) 4 Jose Juan Canales Trenas (Representing EDP Renewables Romania) 4 Claudia Brandus (Representing Enel Green Power Romania) 4 Razvan Lupulescu (Representing Enel Green Power Romania) 4 Razvan Grecu (Representing Engie Romania) 4 Pierre Boulestreau (Representing Engie Romania) 4 Mircea Rusu (Representing Steag Energie Romania) 4 Harald Wechselberger (Representing Verbund Romania) 4 Ovidiu Pop (Representing Verbund Romania) 4 Sorin Minca (Representing AXPO Romania)

hat is the market like at the moment, in your opinion, in terms of opportunities? Not so long ago you were talking about “green bankruptcy”, but under these circumstances, what are the chances of Romania reaching the target of 50% renewable energy by 2030, or of 80% by 2050? Unfortunately, the situation is still the same. The Government and the National Regulatory Authority in the Field of Energy (ANRE) are trying to make small changes in this respect, but I do not know exactly whether the proposed changes will be applied or to what extent. At present, the problem with renewable sources is that the market of green certificates is blocked. Green certificates cannot be absorbed. Moreover, starting from 2017, the postponed green certificates will also be returned. The situation is that of overcompensation, of course. The degree of absorption will be around 60%, because 40% of the green certificates that have been issued cannot be sold. The problem is becoming more and more pressing for the actual producers and for the owners of parks, because this year there have already been five entries into insolvency for some of the smaller and average size parks. Every foreign investor or big company that came to Romania took loans and brought money into Romania to support wind energy projects financially. The investors will not be able to sustain them indefinitely. Everyone knows our problems and wants to solve them, but there are many vested interests that are not very favorable to us. The problems of coal-based energy, of consumers continue to exist. I consider that WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY these players that have a very important role on the energy market have been pitted against one another in vain. Renewable energy is not here to shut down all the mines and to fire the miners, nor has it come to increase energy prices or force consumers to pay the green certificate fees as a part of their invoice for green energy. I can give you an example about how the green certificate is included in the invoice for green energy. There is an environmental tax for bags, there is one for electronic equipment. These taxes are everywhere, so we must assume that once we have joined the European Union, we must reach some quotas and some targets and also we must ensure the future of our children, a clean future. There must be a future for them. All power plants can operate for as long as they are competitive, as long as they have a clean technology. Any consumer has free access to the energy market and can choose a competitive rate. ANRE stated two months ago that thanks to green energy, prices had dropped by 50% over two years. This means more production, higher competition, better prices. There is a misconception on the market as regards green energy, deliberately misinterpreted in order to manipulate interests, in some way or another. Green energy, whether we like it or not, has a future in Romania, it has a future in Europe and the entire planet is now choosing clean energies. The fact that investors have come to invest in Romania, the fact that there has been a massive increase in the number of wind and photovoltaic plants over a five-year period, 2010-2015, of nearly 5,000 MW, shows that in Romania, if there is a will, there is a way. There is a healthy business environment. However, when there is no longer a will, the regulator comes in and stops this and this is totally wrong. In my vision and in our vision, we cannot carry out our activity in a legislative environment that we cannot rely on. Therefore, in 2013 and 2014, Monsson moved its activity in other countries because it no longer considered Romania a good business environment. Which is, in your opinion, a correct scheme of green certificates that can further stimulate investments?

My point is, like that of those who opened renewable energy units based on the current, promised scheme, Law 220, that it is necessary for all green certificates to be absorbed and for a legislative framework to be created for a market where all the green certificates can be sold even at a minimum price. We, the producers of renewable energy, operate for a maximum of 3,000 hours per year, while a producer should normally operate 8,000 hours per year, and that is precisely why this energy is not necessarily expensive, but it is also not competitive in terms of the number of hours of operation, because it all depends on whether it is sunny or windy. This is one of the reasons why renewable energy is in need of support. In another order of ideas, we emit energy on the market at prices between 90 and 100 lei. If we receive a green certificate and manage to sell it, we can reach 200 lei. Have you made proposals in this regard? I tried to, at the level of the Romanian Wind Energy Association, whose Vice-President I am. We meet on a weekly basis and even more often in working groups, meetings, or debates. Proposals are drawn up in this regard, but so far we haven’t seen anything concrete from the regulator. How do you see the future of energy storage? The global trends are to produce energy as close to the source as possible. I can foresee a change of paradigm, in which we will no longer have big energy producers, but many energy producers, all around the cities, all around the plants. That’s how I see the future. Romania is developing several interconnection projects, which will probably lead to an import of cheaper electricity. Will these help us to become a regional energy hub, or will they turn us into an outlet market for the energy produced in other States? From a technical point of view, always on the market, energy will flow from low to high, always from where it is cheaper to where it is more expensive. An interconnected country is better than a poorly connected one, so interconnectivity is good.

“We have prepared various scenarios and this increase of the quota that we are requesting and that represents a basic, primary measure can be also accompanied by complementary measures, designed to alleviate the effect that such a measure may have at the level of the end consumers. There are complementary measures that we have already discussed and proposed: for instance, a reinsertion period for the postponed certificates, which, as we know, will start coming in 2017. It should be a longer period, so that the impact created will be disseminated over more than just one or two years. In addition to this: awaiting and implementing in the legislative framework of the minimum price of green certificates, as it is stipulated by the law today, because this would ensure the predictability and security of future revenues”. Catalina Dragomir, President of RWEA

Although, at the moment, the future of clean energies is not rosy, what is your forecast? I foresee a brilliant future for renewables, for a minimum of 2,000-3,000 more MW. We certainly cannot do anything with the current scheme. We need contracts for difference, which are used everywhere in Europe now. 115


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PHOTOVOLTAIC MARKET IS IN CRISIS The photovoltaic parks, and photovoltaic plants reached an incredible development between 2011-2013 in Romania. Nowadays, barely 30 MW are installed per year. Even more, according to EurObserv’ER, Europe’s electricity market is in crisis, beset by generating capacities surplus to requirements.

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ccording to EurObserv’ER, more than 7.2 GW of capacity was installed in 2015, which equates to 3% year-on-year growth. However the installation is a far cry from the levels of 21.9 GW and 17.5 GW respectively witnessed in 2011 and 2012 reported by Eurostat. Notwithstanding, with cumulative capacity standing at 94.6 GW, the European Union’s installed base is still more than twice that of China thanks to past investment. The European market suffers from overconcentration as three countries – the UK, Germany and France – accounted for 79.9% of the connections made in 2015. In Romania, installed capacity of the photovoltaic plants was around 1,300 MW at the beginning of 2016. Photovoltaic plants supply under 3 % of electric energy in Romanian Electricity System. For each MW of solar energy, producers are receiving 3 GC, in accordance to Law No. 220/2008 regarding the establishment of a system for promoting the production of energy from renewable sources of energy as subsequently amended and supplemented. Tough in 2015, only 30 new MW were installed. In accordance with an amendment to the RES Support Scheme Law, the entities are required to comply with the obligation to acquire GCs on a quarterly basis, similar to the previous provisions adopted in 2013 and subsequently repealed in 2014. In complying with this obligation, the Entities must purchase each quarter a number of GCs equal to the value of the mandatory quota set for the respective year multiplied by the amount of electricity invoiced to end consumers and/or self-supplied as the case may be. Furthermore, the Entities must report to ANRE

the fulfilment of the quota on both a quarterly and annual basis. Following such reporting, ANRE will assess compliance within forty-five days from the end of each quarter. For 2016, a quota of twelve point fifteen percent (12.15%) was established. Given that the estimated number of MWh produced by commissioned RES-Electricity facilities is expected to be higher than this quota, it is likely that a significant number of GCs will continue to remain unsold in 2016.

Local producing, supplying worldwide Altius Fotovoltaic, Romanian photovoltaic modules producer, manufactures 130 MWp yearly production. Altius is producing a wide range of efficient and reliable polycrystalline and monocrystalline PV modules from 80 W to 310 W. 90% of the photovoltaic park projects tendered in Romania during 2015 and financed with EU funds were Altius Fotovoltaic, a company based in Giurgiu Free Tax Zone, sourced. Several Town Halls have also built photovoltaic parks using Altius panels, among which Rosiorii de Vede, Sf. Gheorghe, Miroslava, Herculane, Călmăţuiu, Mischii, Merisani, Amara, Dumbravesti, with a total installed capacity of 10.5 MW. As a result, the company was ranked as the leading PV in Romania, according to company’s representatives. Altius has designed and launched in production a new type of photovoltaic panel, resistant to extreme temperatures encountered in arid areas of Africa, Asia, South America or Australia. Using special materials recently created and

certified by one of our partners in Germany, we created a photovoltaic panel resistant to temperatures up to 128º C. The new materials are TÜV LGA Rheinland® certified, according to IEC 60216-5 (standard of material thermal endurance index). Starting with 2015, according to a press release of the company, “we set aim to access international markets of the European Union, Africa, Middle East and South America. The results immediately occurred, and Altius Fotovoltaic concluded several supply contracts for PV in Greece, Italy, France, Belgium and Switzerland”.

Two-axis tracking system in Romania For example, in Miroslava, EnergoBit inaugurated in 2015 the largest photovoltaic park with two-axis tracking system in Romania. The new technology used in Miroslava, Iasi County, allows the rotation of photovoltaic panels after the Sun’s position, maximizing energy production. Built on an area of 5 hectares, the park, equipped with 4,200 photovoltaic panels, has a total power of 1 MW and will provide both street lighting of the commune and electricity supply for schools, kindergartens, the city hall and public institutions. EnergoBit has finalized in just five months the installation of the photovoltaic system (tracking system, PV panels, inverters), the internal electrical network, low current systems (video surveillance, intrusion, access control, fire control, data transmission, SCADA), the medium voltage connection to the national grid and included civil construction works (ancillary buildings, internal roads and constructions, fencing, trackers’ foundations).

Navodari City, solar street lighting Navodari Town Hall managed to access EU funds for street lighting. The project consists of installing 1,683 new lighting poles, 3,436 photovoltaic panels, and 2,782 batteries/2,782 LED public lighting controllers. Navodari Town Hall aimed to modernize the electricity production sources and to obtain a street lighting low price. The project costs 20,954,090 lei, aproximately 4,65 million euros. 117


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ELECTRICITY FROM BIOMASS, AN UNTAPPED POTENTIAL? Electricity production from biomass is still far from share Romania assumed at European level, that is 1,640 MW installed capacity. Also, according to data published by the transmission system operator Transelectrica SA, in the total electricity production for 2015, biomass represents less than 1%, of the total production last year of 65,597 GWh, 529 GWh came from biomass plants, to be precise. One explanation could be the high costs involved in such an investment, nearly € 3 million per 1 MW.

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lthough electricity production increased, investment in biomass power plants are still far from the target assumed by our country, aspect underlined by the Secretary of State for Energy, Corina Popescu, at a conference dedicated to this underused resource in Romania. “From biomass, Romania assumed the 1,640 MW installed capacity. At the end of last year, there were only 104.5 MW installed capacity. A big difference compared to the target that we set for ourselves.”, said Corina Popescu. It is one of the reasons why the Ministry of Energy considers extending the scheme to support biomass even after the end of this year. “At the Ministry of Energy, this moment, the opportunity of extending the support scheme through a transitional system just for this type of resource beyond December 31st 2016, is being analyzed. Romania should, however, discuss and start a dialogue with the European Commission, Romania can not approve such a scheme on ist own” informed Corina Popescu. If running the support scheme will not get endorsement from the European Commission, a mechanism of financial support could be introduced. The initiative was launched by Iulian Iancu, chairman of the Industry and Services Chamber of the Lower House of Romania. “In Romania, 29.6% of the population can not pay heating bills in winter, a percentage three times higher than the average in the European Union. Also, 30% of the population is at risk from severe material deprivation and, 42% is vulnerable due to electricity

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prices. Thus, we need to come up with a mechanism and change the whole philosophy of supporting biomass as a financial scheme. We can get support for passing from fossil to green. If you are a polluter and a CO2 emitter, you contribute to someone who invests in absorbing these emissions. In other words, we can state this in a general term that I thought of, green royalty, which comes from the polluter towards the one who invests in green area. Why should we come up with this novelty? Because, on the one hand, Romanian consumers will not have to bear certain costs “proposed the parliamentarian. Iulian Iancu also stressed the need for a National Biomass Strategy. The Ministry of Energy, on the other hand, says that biomass will have a separate chapter in the forthcoming Energy Strategy of Romania which is coagulating now and is due for completion in September.

Energy willow, licensed in Romania and Republic of Moldova Successful examples are not lacking in the market, despite the shortcomings that growers and producers of electricity from biomass encounter. Benkő Sándor, the owner of Kontrastwege SRL Miercurea Ciuc, licensed for ten years now for cultivation in Romania and Republic of Moldova, advocates for the cultivation of this species. “Today there are approximately 1,000 hectares of energy willow plantations in Romania. To start a plantation, one has to prepare the ground, which means: deep plowing (min. 35 cm) in autumn, and, in spring after the soil becomes proper, is a discing and planting follows. There are different specific machines for planting, but these WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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should not be purchased because there are companies specialized in planting, that offer this service. The cost of a hectare of plantation is from € 1,700 to € 2,000, sum that covers the cost of agricultural work, planting material, planting, required herbicides and maintenance in the first year. Harvest resulting from a hectare, is variable depending on soil quality, the geographical area where the plantation is positioned (annual precipitation rate) and on the grower’s attention for the plantation. There were values of 20-30 tons/ha/ year,” the grower explained. Growing energy willow has two support schemes, a direct one from Payments and Intervention in Agriculture Agency (APIA) and another one, granting users of biomass energy plantation a green certificate in addition, according to the provisions of 220/2008, regarding establishing the system of promotion for energy production from renewable sources, which influences the grind’s price, says Sándor Benkő. “My message to potential investors is to invest in building biomass cogeneration power plants, so they can produce electricity and hot water at competitive prices. In subsequent years, city residents will return to the central heating system” says the businessman from Harghita county.

Biomass Power Plants According to the Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE), 25 operators are licensed for biomass and biogas. The Authority licensed, by the end of last year, energy production capacities of biomass, biogas and landfill gas with an installed capacity of 106.5 MW. One of the major projects developed in the field of cogeneration biomass plant is an investment in Suceava, with an electrical capacity of 30 MW and 130.5 MW thermal power. The project developed by Bioenergy, with 49%

Legislation issue Law on biomass and energy plants, which is momentarily a draft, could give an impulse to energy plants growers and producers of electricity from biomass. „Definitely, developing energy plantations Law, which lies in Parliament from 2012, would favorably influence the growth areas and would order the implementing and licensing of plantations and growers,” concludes Sándor Benkő.

ownership of Adrem Invest, amounted to almost € 90 million and was completed in 2013. The company’s main client was the supplier of steam and heat from Suceava, Termica SA, but the intention of the investor was to convert the plant into an electricity producer. KDF Energy from Bucharest is another firm that was interested in investing into the developing biomass based power plants. The company develops in Horezu, Vâlcea County, an electricity production capacity of almost 4.2 MW installed capacity, a project valued at € 11 million. The project “Harnessing renewable energy resources through investment in the power plant biomass in Horezu, Vâlcea” - SMIS code 20442, is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund based on the financing contract signed with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment within the Sectoral Operational Programme “Increasing Economic Competitiveness” (POS CCE), Priority Axis 4 “Increasing energy efficiency and security of supply, in the context of climate change,” KAI “Harnessing renewable energy resources for producing green energy.” Estimated at 30 months implementation period, the power plant, said company representatives, has biomass as energy source and will use as raw material sawdust and wood waste. 119


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TRANSELECTRICA, FOLLOWING THE LINE OF INVESTMENTS The Directorate of CNTEE Transelectrica has shifted its attention onto more difficult, more extensive investments in power lines, so as to render functional the interconnections between West-East and North-South, at both national and cross-border level, and to enable producers to have real access to other markets where they can sell their electricity production.

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he transport and system operator CNTEE Transelectrica SA has been dubbed a champion of investments because, for example, of the 81 stations managed by the operator, 41 are already retechnologized. These investments have been important, but the market has also waited for another signal, that of large scale projects regarding the power lines, enabling the company to evolve in line with the production area, significantly reconfigured, the number of electricity producers increasing from year to year, this being the most dynamic market among the vast area of energy markets. The management of Transelectrica has conceived a strategy concerning the development of network capabilities in order to meet the growing demand on the part of producers. In addition, the projects for establishing electric lines aim to increase the interconnection capacity of the Romanian system, facilitating in this way the integration of the Romanian market on the vast European and international market. Moreover, the creation of a single market is a concept adopted by all the Member States, many projects being carried out to that end at European level. Since November 2014 a next day market has been in operation, joining Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The market works with certain limitations due to the interconnection system, especially between Romania and Hungary, according to Cătălin Chimirel, 120

Member of the Executive Board of CNTEE Transelectrica.

What projects are being developed? The investment program of the Transelectrica, outlined until 2023, is updated every two years. Thus, investments of over 250 million euros are planned until 2017. According to the company’s investment plan, the modernization and upgrading of the remaining stations will continue. Thus, the other 12 units will be upgraded and retooled. We are referring to the retechnologization of the power stations in Câmpia Turzii, Domnești, Turnu Severin Est, Bradu and Tulcea Vest. The electrical stations of 110 kV and 20 kV in Suceava will also be upgraded. The plan includes modernizing and upgrading another 21 stations until 2023, the final year for which the program of investment in electricity has been developed by the power transmission and system operator. The areas of interest as regards the interconnection activity, in which investments are made, are carried out both in the west, where there is a line under construction (Reşiţa-Pancevo, in Serbia) as part of the project “Mid Continental East Corridor”, and in the east, where there are projects underway that are meant to ensure the stability and the evacuation conditions for a production marked very often by a strong surplus. The development of the project “Mid Continental East Corridor” is

justified as regards the achievement of the North-South electricity interconnection in Central Europe and South-East Europe (“NSI East Electricity”), the internal lines and interconnections in the North-South and East-West directions for the completion of the internal market and for the integration of the production coming from renewable sources. The project has been included by the European Commission on the first list of projects of common interest (PCI) – in 2013, forming the “Romania-Serbia Group, between Reşiţa and Pancevo”, which includes the following projects of common interest: LEA 400 kV double circuit (d.c.) Reşiţa (Romania)Pancevo (Serbia), LEA 400 kV Porţile de Fier – Reşiţa and the expansion of the station 220/110 kV Reşiţa through the construction of the new 400 kV station and, respectively, the switching to 400 kV of the LEA 220 kV d.c. Reşiţa –Timişoara – Săcălaz – Arad, including the construction of the 400 kV stations Timişoara and Săcălaz. The “Mid Continental East Corridor” project will allow the integration of the production of wind turbines (approx. 1,000 MW installed) to be installed in the south-western part of Romania WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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Did you know that . . . After Turkey, Romania has the largest SEE in this area? Of the 35 countries of ENTSO-E, Romania occupies the 14th place. Moreover, Romania is one of the top 12 electricity-exporting countries in terms of the import/ export balance. By 2025 the interconnection capacity will reach 2,500 MW, compared with 1,600 MW at present, and that this capacity will amount to 3,500 MW in 2030?

and the north-eastern part of Serbia, as well as of the refurbished hydroelectric power stations Iron Gates (Romania) and, respectively, Djerdap (Serbia), already in existence. The investment project LEA 400kV d.c. Oradea-Nădab is about to be completed in the western part of the country. The double-circuit line GutinaşSmârdan and, respectively, the line connection Cernavodă-Stâlpu and the connecting branch with an input/ output circuit at Gura Ialomiței is another project included in the investment program for this year and the next two, which has also been included by the European Commission on the first list of projects of common interest (PCI). Called the “Black Sea Corridor” Project, it forms together with three projects of lines and stations in Bulgaria, the “Bulgaria-Romania Group for increased capacity”. Aside from the double-circuit lines mentioned above, the project also comprises, as a project of common interest, the implementation of the LEA 400 kV s.c. Suceava – Gădălin. Moreover, it is on the execution of the LEA Suceava – Gădălin that the completion of the LEA 400 kV Suceava – Bălți depends,

the latter being the interconnection part for which Romania is responsible in the joint project with the Republic of Moldova. The “Black Sea Corridor” Project is necessary for the electrical priority corridor regarding energy: “NorthSouth Interconnections relating to electricity in Central Europe and South-East Europe (‘NSI East Electricity’)”: interconnections and internal lines along the North-South and East-West directions for the completion of the internal market and for the integration of the production coming from renewable sources. Thus, it will be possible to achieve the interconnection of the Black Sea coast with the North Sea/Atlantic Ocean and to consolidate the electricity transmission corridor along the coast of the Black Sea (Romania-Bulgaria) and between the coast and the rest of Europe and Turkey. The interconnection projects will also entail reconfiguring the area in the Medgidia Sud station, along with rethinking the interconnections currently linking Isaccea with Dobrudja and Varna, taking over these lines from Medgidia Sud and forging the connections with the

Bulgarian system from Medgidia Sud to Dobrudja and Varna.

About Transelectrica SA Transelectrica was founded in 2000 as a result of the separation of the former National Electricity Company (CONEL) and it manages the energy system as an operator. The company has been listed on the Bucharest Stock Exchange since 29 August 2006. The main, majority shareholder is the Romanian State, which owns 58.688% of the shares. SIF Oltenia is the only minority shareholder as a legal entity that owns more than 5% of the shares – 5.667%. Other legal persons hold a package of actions amounting to 27.612%, while individuals own 8.32%. The number of the transmission operator’s employees exceeds 2,000. Transelectrica comprises four subsidiaries, Romanian legal entities, organized as joint-stock companies in which it is the sole shareholder, namely: OPCOM, Formenerg, Teletrans, and Icemenerg Service. Among the company’s subsidiaries, only the Smart and Teletrans companies are included in the group’s financial consolidation perimeter. In 121


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2015 the subsidiaries that participate in the consolidation perimeter (Smart and Teletrans) started procedures for the implementation of the principles of corporate governance, in accordance with the regulations of Ordinance 109/2011 concerning corporate governance in public institutions. SMART. The main activity of the SC SMART SA branch consists in making revisions and repairs to gear and equipment under voltage, transformers and autotransformers, the remediation of incidents with electrical installations and electrical

Financial results (in thousand lei) Operating revenues 2,985,779 Operating expenses 2,544,674 Gross profit from operations 441,104 Financial result 24,200 Profit before tax 416,904 Net profit 346,105 Source: Transelectrica Consolidated Annual Report on 2015

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equipment microproduction. The company has 8 branches without legal personality in the same locations as the Transelectrica branches. The shareholder structure as of 30. 12. 2014, as a result of the raising of capital through contribution in kind by the amount of land for which a certificate of title has been obtained is as follows: CNTEE Transelectrica SA – 70.005%, the Romanian State through the General Secretariat of the Government – 29,994%. TELETRANS SC Teletrans SA was established by AGM Decision no. 13/04.12.2002 of Transelectrica. Teletrans shares belong 100% to Transelectrica. Teletrans carries out activities in telecommunication services, having been issued Licence no. 29056 by the National Authority for Administration and Regulation in Communication (“ANCOM”) on 27. 09. 2010, obeying the regulations of this institution, under the law (Ordinance no. 79/2002). FORMENERG The SC FORMENERG SA Branch is a company having as its main object of activity the training of personnel in

the energy field, its clients including Distrigaz Sud Rețele, Distrigaz Confort, CEZ Distribuție, OMV Petrom and FDEE Electrica Distribuție Transilvania Sud. ICEMENERG – SERVICE. The Icemenerg Service SA Branch is focused on the design, production and distribution of measuring, transmission and control devices intended for the energetic system, having been licensed with certificates ISO 9001 and IQ NET, issued by SRAC ROMANIA, ANRE attested. OPCOM. OPCOM was established under Government Ordinance 627/2000 on the reorganization of the National Electricity Company SA, as a subsidiary whose sole shareholder is Transelectrica. The main activities of OPCOM are: the organization, administration and supervision of the centralized electricity markets and the administration and supervision of the centralized market in the natural gas sector. Transelectrica does not exercise direct control over the decisionmaking mechanisms of OPCOM, whose administration is conducted according to the rules set by ANRE. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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OPCOM SA - THE ELECTRICITY MARKET ADMINISTRATOR The Romanian Power Market Operator - Opcom S.A. was established in August 15th, 2000 based on the Government Decision No. 627/2000, as a joint stock company subsidiary of the Romanian Transmission and System Operator - Transelectrica S.A. and fully owned by it. Beginning with September 2000, the Romanian electricity and ancillary services wholesale market is administered by Opcom S.A., based on the condition of the primary legislation in force.

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ccording to the provisions of the primary and secondary legislation in force, the company Operatorul Pietei de Energie Electrica si Gaze Naturale “OPCOM� S.A. fulfills the role of the electricity market administrator, providing an organized, viable and efficient framework for the commercial trades’ deployment on the wholesale electricity market and performs administration activities of the centralized markets in the natural gas sector, complying with the consistency, correctness, impartiality, independence, equidistance, transparency and non-discrimination conditions. The structure is making a separation of the main activities: organization and administration of centralized markets for wholesale short term electricity trading and carrying out activities related to the Settlement Operator function by performing settlement operations for shortterm centralized markets, acting as a counterparty on these markets, as well as setting the payment obligations / collection rights on the Balancing Market and the quantity and value of the imbalances of the Balancing Responsible Parties; organization and administration of centralized markets for medium and long term wholesale electricity trading, natural gas trading, trading of green certificates and emission allowances for greenhouse gases according to the in force provisions of the legislation and the applicable regulatory framework; Market surveillance in order to report on the significant data, to evaluate the

market operation and to identify inappropriate behavior or abuse attempts of market participants; Economic and patrimony management; Administration and development of the IT&C systems; Management, administration and development of the IT&C systems. According to a press release of OPCOM, at the end of May, 324 participants were registered in spot market, 119 were enrolled in the Intraday Market, 349 companies were listed in the Trading registry of Centralized Market for Electricity Bilateral Contracts Extended Auction mechanism, 158 companies were listed in the Trading registry of Centralized Market for Electricity Bilateral Contracts Continuous Negotiation mechanism, one company was listed in the Trading registry of Centralized Market for Electricity Bilateral Contracts Fuel Processing mechanism, 92 companies were listed as registered participants to the Centralized Market with double continuous negotiation for Electricity Bilateral Contracts (CM-OTC), 35 participants were registered in Centralized Market for Universal Service and 2 participants were registered in the Electricity Market for Large Consumers (LCM). Green Certificates Market had 875 registered participants at May 31, while 12 companies were listed as registered participants to the Trading Platform for Emission Certificates (TPEC). At the end of May, 13 companies were listed as registered participants to the Centralized Market for Natural Gas. Electricity supply market consists

Victor Ionescu, General Manager OPCOM SA

of Regulated and Competitive segments: The regulated segment comprises 5 companies, integrated within the same group as the corresponding electricity distribution operators. The competitive segment comprises 95 players, 88 of which have less than 4% market share. Electrica is the largest supplier overall, and on both regulated and competitive segments. Electrica Furnizare is the supply company of Electrica, with a market share of 22% (ANRE Report), representing 3.61 mn consumers (Q1 2016). 123


ELECTRIC DEVICES An eye toward export

ACTIVITIES RELATED TO THE ENERGY SECTOR ARE BECOMING INTERNATIONALIZED The Romanian energy market needs financing of around 100 billion euros in the area of investment. Despite this reality, the fierce battle between suppliers over the energy sector, the slowing down of the pace of investment and the declining prices on the market are just some of the reasons why players with energy-related activities would like to transfer part of their business abroad, exporting technologies, specialists and equipment, among others.

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omanian companies with activities related to the energy industry have rechannelled some of their business policy towards export, due to the difficulties encountered on the local market. Teofil Mureşan, owner of Electrogrup, acknowledges that there is a gruesome battle between suppliers, even though the market offers many opportunities, such as those in the smart area. This is one of the reasons why the Cluj-based company has targeted foreign markets in recent years. “Electrogrup has exported services in order maintain itself on the market. In the past two years we have opened subsidiaries in other countries, like Germany, Russia and, as of this year, the UK, trying to export both engineering know-how to foreign companies that want to outsource certain services in Romania, design services, for instance, or to build infrastructure in other countries”, as Teofil Mureşan, owner of Electrogrup Cluj-Napoca, explains

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the partial reorientation of his business towards foreign markets. Electrogrup carries out nationwide, complex projects of energy, telecommunications and civil infrastructure, working within a group of companies with complementary activities in the provision of utilities and engineering solutions. Using internal synergies through the cross-sector concept, the group of companies offers the advantages of exploiting interconnectivity between domains, streamlining costs and resources, flexibility, lower implementation times and decreasing the environmental impact. With over 150 110/20 kV stations and 20/0.4 KV transformer stations and over 350 kilometres of overhead and underground power lines, the Electrogrup portfolio of electrical works covers all types of works on voltages of 0.4-400 kV. Electrogrup is developing construction projects on the

market of renewable energies, as turn-key contractor: design, authorization, implementation, monitoring and maintenance.

Electroalfa relies on export The policy of Electroalfa envisages that by 2020, domestic growth will reach a maximum of 20% and that the rest will come from the foreign market. “And I can say that according to our plans up until 2020, we aim to reach up to 80-100 million euros total business. We have built a strategy up to 2020, and in this strategy we insist on a very strong increase in acquisitions. Last year we invested over 1 million euros in new products, specific to those countries with normal to high temperatures”, as Gheorghe Ciubotaru, Chairman of Electroalfa, points out. The Botoșani-based company is active on the Western market, but with the lifting of the bans against Iran, Electroalfa could also activate in other, generically called Arab countries. “We are now enrolling with the major service companies in the Middle East, we are present with subsidiaries in Africa, we are exploring, naturally, the Iran area, we are confidently approaching Western Europe, particularly Germany, where exports towards the entire world are quite massive, and the niche we wish to occupy entails a lot of intelligence, in the sense that we do not sell only equipment, but we take specifications with technological issues and we are the ones who achieve the specific R&D engineering part, with automation processes, with drives, we execute the products WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRIC DEVICES and put them into service. It is a highly successful niche”, as Gheorghe Ciubotaru explains. Electroalfa is one of the leading integrators of solutions in the energy field from Romania, specialized in the production and supply of electrical equipment of medium and low voltage, metal confections, entrepreneurship in advanced electrical installations and specialized engineering services. The latest products promoted by the company are the Alpha System monobloc cabinets with a removable frame and, respectively, metal cases. Alpha System cabinets are metal structures used to build various distribution panels, in industrial or residential applications that require complex configurations. The cabinets of this kind are made from cold rolled steel sheets steel with a thickness of 1÷3 mm, painted on the automatic painting line in an electrostatic field. The metal cases are made of galvanized sheet with a thickness of 1-2 mm depending on the size. They are painted on the inside and the outside with a textured polyester paint in RAL 7035 colour. 37 sizes are available for these cases. These cases are also made of stainless steel.

Romelectro, export targets Another company targeting foreign markets in response to the problems from this branch of the Romanian industry is the Bucharest-based company Romelectro. “The Romanian market… let’s say that it has recovered slightly in terms of volume, but unfortunately, the market has reached, much like energy, very low prices and there is a huge competition, with many companies that are struggling and are on the edge of survival. If you take a general look at the smaller companies, but also at the bigger ones, you will notice that they are incurring major losses even though some projects have begun to appear. That is why more and more of us are orienting ourselves toward export”, as Cristian Secoşan, General Manager of Romelectro, explains the reorientation of the domestic companies’ business policy. In 2016, although it is involved in several internal projects, on its area of competence, Romelectro predicts that it will obtain 10-20%

Cristian Secosan, General Manager, Romelectro, and Corneliu Bodea, Vice President, Adrem Invest

of its turnover from exports. “In the long run, even the growth we aim to achieve is largely based on exports”, the General Manager adds. One of the markets Romelectro is targeting is Saudi Arabia, where the company plans to open a subsidiary. “We believe in the potential of this area and we are going to build something there”, says Cristian Secoșan. He has also launched a challenge to the Romanian State, which he would like to see more involved in supporting the Romanian businesses abroad. “Clearly, stronger support is needed for Romanian exports, like all countries do, both in the European Union and outside it. We would like to receive support from the State also as regards funding, financial backing”, Secoşan says. With an experience of over 40 years on the local and international market, Romelectro is currently one of the leading EPC contractors in Romania, covering through its projects the entire energy chain: from the production to the transportation, distribution and supply of electricity. In 2005, Romelectro became the majority shareholder of ISPE, CELPI and Electromontaj Carpați Sibiu, laying the foundations for Romelectro Group. As regards the Romelectro Group’s capabilities, references speak for themselves: complex design and engineering for more than 15,000 MW in conventional and nuclear power plants, accounting for 90% of the total capacity installed in Romania; complex rehabilitation

programs for more than 3,000 MW; engineering and design for more than 150 high-voltage stations and approximately 22,000 km of designed or executed air cables. Renewable energy is another line of business of great importance for Romelectro. Specialized teams of engineers cover virtually all the technologies available on the market. For the wind power plants, the specialists of Romelectro Group have already prepared studies of network connectivity and engineering projects for more than 25,000 installed MW. Also underway are major projects of waste incineration, biomass based cogeneration, photovoltaic projects and wastewater and sewage treatment plants. Today, the Romelectro group of companies has more than 1,460 employees, 700 of whom are specialized in engineering and design.

Bodea from Adrem Invest, sceptical Adrem Invest is a company that would like to develop its business in the export area, but without support from the State and with a high dose of scepticism that the export-oriented business policy can represent the future in the short and medium run. “We bought a competitor in Switzerland, we built a cogeneration plant together with some partners in Suceava, our exports to China amount to around 20 million euros each year (systems, technology), so we are not really an example of a 125


ELECTRIC DEVICES company that has benefited from support. We do not export energy solutions to other countries, we would like to do this, but where could we export them, since the European Union is an extremely competitive market which, industrially speaking, is undergoing a decline. We are preparing now for the entry of Chinese products into the European Union, the Middle East area is difficult, challenging and unstable, it is not very auspicious for long-term plans, China is all right but has taken a more leisurely pace, which can be felt quite strongly because China needs those growth figures, so in my opinion export will not be a solution for Romania in the near future”, according to Corneliu Bodea, Vice President of Adrem Invest, a company with a total turnover of 60-65 million euros. The businessman believes that the difficult Romanian market actually creates opportunities, and that is why there is room for business growth here. “I wouldn’t want you to think that I am pessimistic, I don’t think the difficult situation will return in the energy sector in the short term, but I think we have another chance, especially since this lack of predictability and the fretfulness that has seized the energy sector are creating a lot of opportunities. I believe that those who will know how to speculate in a positive sense these opportunities will register

spectacular growth”, Corneliu Bodea concluded. Founded in the early 1990s, with the development of the private sector in Romania, Adrem INVEST Company was started by Adrian and Corneliu Bodea as a family business. A of 1995, Adrem Invest has been a leading provider of solutions for industrial vacuum applications, the installations reaching clients on three continents, including in the field of nuclear energy. In 1999, along with the partnership with Whipp & Bourne, Adrem INVEST improved its area of expertise in the energy sector by developing its design and engineering capacities. In 2000, Adrem INVEST became the local provider of automation solutions for electricity distribution networks, launching the SCADA & Automation Division. In the last 10 years, this division has grown steadily, Adrem INVEST being recognized today as a leader on the local market of industrial automation in supplying SCADA solutions (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) for utility networks. The year 2011 marked for Adrem INVEST a new step in its development, the company focusing on developing a new line of business, by creating a new division of renewable energies – Green Energy Division. Among the projects this division is developing is the building a cogeneration plant in Suceava or the construction of solar farms.

Teofil Muresan, owner, Electrogroup, and Stefan Gadola, Executive Vice President, EnergoBit

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EnergoBit, focused on total services The EnergoBit Group from ClujNapoca may have flirted with the foreign markets, but has developed much of its business in Romania. “Last year we built the largest photovoltaic plant in Hungary (45 MW). The fact that renewables have fallen has led us to orient ourselves towards other things, so we have focused on two things, looking outside too. I can’t say that we have no collaborations abroad today, but mostly what we have trying to do is see what we can do in this country and I must say that we have some services, I would call them total services, in which we start from consulting, engineering, construction, commissioning, aftersales service guarantee and, above all, we are close to the consumers in”, as Ștefan Gadola, Executive Vice President of EnergoBit, says. He considers that it is very much work to be done in the country, there still exist out-dated networks and old transformers, and that all these represent opportunities for the company that owns the only factory of transformers with minimum losses in Romania and that can provide solutions and equipment for the electricity distributors that are expected to invest in their networks. EnergoBit, EnergoBit Prod, Enex, EnergoBit Schréder Lighting, Energolux, EnergoBit Tavrida, EnergoEco, EnergoBit Control Systems, EnergoBit Semco Project, EnergoBit Plus, EnergoBit Bucuresti, EnergoBit Brasov, EnergoBit Bacau and EnergoBit Constanta form a family reunited under a single name: EnergoBit Group. Companies from EnergoBit Group offer a complete solution in electricity which involves covering all the energy audit branches, consultancy in the electroenergetic field, engineering design, general contracting for electrical works, the supply and production of electrical equipment, the supply/ distribution/remote metering of energy, as well as interior and exterior lighting systems. The companies that make up EnergoBit Group integrate the latest solutions and equipment and complete each other like the pieces of a puzzle, offering complete systems in the electro-energetic field, of high, medium and low voltage. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY - DISTRIBUTION Martin Zmelik, CEO CEZ Romania:

“WE BELIEVE IN GRADUAL GROWTH THROUGH NEW INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS” “Our expectations from the local energy market haven’t changed in the past year. We are still pleading for stability and predictibility, especially in the legal framework” – says Martin Zmelik, CEO CEZ Romania. Many interesting information about business, projects developed, and many more, in an interview with Mr. Zmelik.

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ast year you were waiting a Romanian energy strategy, and did not happened. Your business in Romania were in stand-by – no future investments, no sellings, strenghtening of your business was the key word. This year we discuss again about an energy strategy of Romania. What are you expecting from this strategy as a foreign investor? Actually, we were far from „stand-by” last year and we invested significantly, as every year in the past decade, especially in the modernization of the grid. In addition to the 1.638 mio euro invested in the modernization of the grid in between 2005 – 2014, in 2015 alone 161 853,68 ths lei were invested in integrating power stations into SCADA, modernize and replace transformers, install remote controlled equipment and improve the quality of the grid in lower voltage levels. And our constant efforts, not only in terms of funds, but also in terms of network management, have a direct impact in reducing the duration of the interruptions, improving the overall technical parameters and, all in all, offering the client a more qualitative energy distribution service. But you are right about the other part: we did not sell and we focused on consolidating our current portfolio. Because we are a long term investor in Romania and we are a partner of the business and local community. We believe in gradual growth through new initiatives and projects in the areas like energy efficiency, ESCO services, storage and other new trends in the sector. Our expectations from the local energy market haven’t changed in the past year. We are still pleading for stability and predictibility, especially in the legal framework.

How did your businesses in Romania have been affected by the unpredictable law and regulatory framework, and by the unstable financial rules, and what solutions did you find? It is well known that we are still mainly impacted in CEZ wind farm in Dobrogea region by the unpredictable changes in the renewable support scheme in 2013. On one hand, we worked on optimizing our internal production related processes and, on the other, we have also consolidated

the financial situation of the wind companies by increasing the share capital of the parent companies. In reply to all the other new taxes and legal changes in the energy distribution sector, we approached the method that always proved effective in our case: we analyzed the options for optimization and moved fast forward in implementing the most appropriate ones. It takes a certain mobility and strength, but we also have a great team of specialists we can also count on finding the right solutions. 127


ELECTRICITY - DISTRIBUTION support of the Police, we are developing periodical controls in medium seized areas in order to decrease the criminal effect of energy theft. Nonetheless, we have approached a new technical strategy to fight against the phenomenon by reducing the accesibility of the network and, thus, the illegal consumption risk. All our modernization works target grid securization as well. Since an important part of the phenomenon is also socilly related, we are using our communication channels and public stands to send out awareness messages to the community about the risks and damages illegal consumption may bring. Starting with accidents, fires and other injuries that may prove fatal and until the penal caracter of the situation, illegal consumption is a fact we need to stand against together. Do you intend to diversify your business this year, such as buying assets of Enel? We are always keeping our eyes on the market’s evolution. However, new acquisitions are not in our plans for the near future. We are rather focused on diversifying the services we offer to our clients and become more than an energy provider. As mentioned, we are already investigate today’s trends in the sector like energy efficiency, ESCO services, storage and electric mobility.

A problem which affects a distributor business are network losses – thefts, old networks etc. – how CEZ managed this problem, what percentage represents network losses in your total costs? As we speak, almost 29% of the grid we took over in 2005 is modernized as a result of our approx 50 mio euro yearly investment plans in the past 10 years. Illegal distribution connections to CEZ Distributie’ grid are a fact generating substantial losses. However, the worst effects remain the interruptions and insecurity caused to the good will consumers paying for their bills and naturally expecting high quality power distribution service. Out of a total energy flow that entering the energetic contour of CEZ Distributie of approximately 10,000 GWh, technical losses are approximately 944 GWh (9.4%), while the remaining 204 GWh (2%) represents commercial 128

loss. The level of recalculated energy due to suspected tampering and theft discovered in 2015 reached nearly 32 GWh (2.8%). Reducing the level of the losses has been our key priority in the past 3 years and we have managed to achieve important milestones in the process. First of all, we are using the entire CEZ team to identify the key sources for losses. By means of our internal program “Fighter of the month”, we are motivating and awarding our employees to take personal hold of the situation and keep an eye on the installations, locations and sources that may be optimized for lower losses levels. We split the map of the operational area into 13 main regions and we are strictly monitoring the results we reach every month. In addition, we have a specialized departament trained and assigned to identify non-technical losses. With the

You have a business politics oriented towards the customers, and you are a pioneer of energy efficiency projects. What are your development projects in this field in order to offer energy efficiency solutions, keep your clients, and increase your revenues and return? In 2015, we introduced in 2015 in Giurgita (Dolj County) an unique energy efficiency program targeting the public lighting systems in Romania. CEZ Romania counts among the first players in the market implementing an ESCO contract for public lighting, as it is defined by the Energy Efficiency Law 121/2014 and National Action Plan in Energy Efficiency approved by GD 122/2015. Based on a sustainable and innovative business practice, CEZ proved that the public lighting systems can be refurbished through Energy Performance - a turn-key solution including: consultancy, design, execution (LED lighting system) and maintenance for 10 years. Investment breakdown over a period of 10 years represents an affordable cost for the WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY - DISTRIBUTION local community and provides a long term partnership of quality and energy savings. The Energy Performance partnership introduced by CEZ Romania to local authorities has the longest duration valid in Romania until now: 10 years for pay back. More importantly, it doesn’t require any initial investment of the city halls - financing the refurbishment of the public lighting system is fully provided by CEZ Romania. Furthermore, by ensuring free of charge maintenance during the contract, the solution means zero additional costs, guaranteed for the city hall for 10 years. The Energy Performance partnership designed by CEZ Romania responds to current legislation provisions in terms of energy efficiency, while also being self sustainable. Basically, the investment is recovered from the registered energy savings provided by the efficient installations. Thus, the community gains a public lighting system that is modern, energy efficient and according to the law, while CEZ Romania takes care of the installation and further maintenance for one decade. CEZ was in the pilot project of smart metering. Which were your conclusions, and which are the future plans of the company in this area? First of all, there are benefits provided by smart meters that cannot be ignored: 4 clear and in real-time information on mode of consumption; customer knows and sees exactly how he consumes, when he consumes more or less, where the consumption mainly comes from and he can then take decisions on the tariff that suits him best or places where it’s needed more attention for energy savings; consumption data provided by the smart meter are registered hourly or even 15 minutes and sent to the distribution operator; 4 the customer is no longer bothered by the operator distribution teams for meter reading, disconnection or reconnection; all these operations can be done remotely without the presence of the client; 4 on the medium and long term, the customer can enjoy better deals on electricity tariffs; smart meter can provide information about consumer mode that lead to the design of new types of rates, including service packages tailored to the client’s lifestyle, keeping pace with the changes; 4 Intelligent measuring system provides information on the electricity quality indicators used by the

distributor for undertaking measures to improve quality indicators at the final consumer 4 The system provides information for deployment of energy efficiency measures for both consumers and distribution operator. CEZ Distributie has already installed more than 34 000 meters already in its operational area (Oltenia) and we also noticed that to the list of benefits could also be added: 4 Reduced reconnection durations from 1 day to maximum 3 minutes 4 Lower costs for the disconnection / reconnection operations for client And a very important aspect both for the customer and for operator distribution: identifying real-time energy losses, including illicit consumption. Smart meter help to quickly identify the illegal connections to the network, leading to rapid detection of fraudulent or unregistered consumption. With this real-time information the distribution operator can intervene in a much shorter time to avoid hazards of electric shock, fire, material damage or even human damage. And also it can lower network losses that inevitably lead to outages in electricity supply. In other words, smart meters may be the most comfortable solution for the customer have access to lower energy prices, better quality of electricity supply and service packages customized to each customer’s consumption regime. The customer starts to feel the need to be in charge to understand what he consumes, and in this area of the market really the smart meter is an instrument that helps. However the target of 80% for all consumers is a challenge and a common vision is needed. Did CEZ develop its business plan to store energy from Fîntînele – Cogealac power plant in order to place electric charging stations? Did you replace a part of you car fleet? What intend in the future in this area? We are in research phase for storage solutions related to the green energy we produce in CEZ Wind Farm. However, in 2015, we also approached the E-Mobility project starting with a pilot in two of its main operation cities: Craiova and Pitesti. We created a mini E-mobility infrastructure consisting of 2 electric power car charging stations of free use for all the owners of electric cars stopping by and two green-energy cars for the use of its employees (one full electric Renault Zoe and a

hybrid Toyota Prius). As part of the pilot project, CEZ has also begun an awareness campaign in Oltenia, raising the benefits of E-mobility in a creative approach, by having all those using the free of charge stations also branded with symbols of green energy and environmental protection. On the other hand, CEZ employees have full access to the electric cars to fulfill their daily work travelling and provide a positive and practical example to the community altogether. Thus, CEZ encourages the community to use clean energy in their day to day mobility and to keep the nature safe. The pilot has exceeded the initial expectations of the company, as the results show it. 675.2 kW were charged into electric cars in Pitesti and Craiova by 53 drivers, while our two electric vehicles have already turned 5900 Km in less than 4 months. The figures encourage us to extend the electric charging infrastructure as well as the electric car fleet in the upcoming years. Additionally, CEZ will continue the awareness campaign by shooting a real – life video about using Renault Zoe on the route Bucharest – Pitesti meant to respond with real – life facts to all the community’s questions related to e-mobility in Romania. Romania has to cope to European energy strategy, and international ones. Are the companies from Romania prepared to assure energy security, diversified, and in time renewable sources, interconnections, protection of vulnerable consumer? Please support your point of view. I believe the topics you mention basically summarize the whole debate around the national energy strategy, because these are the key aspects to be fine tuned in order to have a balanced energy sector. The right energy mix, the proper infrastructure for interconnectivity and a fair forecast of the future consumption are the variables to be considered in assigning clear roles to each player in the local energy market: producer, transporter, distributor and seller altogether. We are actively supporting these debates with our European know-how mixed with our local experience as well, on the other hand, it is obvious that Romania needs a customized approach serving its own key role in region and also its high potential and diversity of energy resources. With these 2 key advantages and a proper planning, Romania should be ready to play in the major league of the European energy sector. 129


ELECTRICITY

THE NATURAL DISTRIBUTION MONOPOLY DIVIDED AMONG FOUR OPERATORS Four distribution companies divide among themselves, in a natural monopoly regime, the eight distribution areas delineated within the National Power System, namely Southern Muntenia, Northern Muntenia, Dobrogea, Moldavia, Northern Transylvania, Southern Transylvania, Banat and Oltenia. Electrica SA, the only company in which the State is a majority shareholder, E.ON, Enel and CEZ have, in their distribution networks, around 8 million consumers, representing a connection level of 96%. The biggest problem of the distribution networks includes the network losses, generated by theft, and the outdated networks. Their own consumption in the distribution networks (including commercial losses) is higher than the EU average in terms of an annual average value. A challenge for the distribution companies is smart metering. Last year the National Regulatory Authority in the Field of Energy monitored the pilot projects for the implementation of intelligent metering systems.

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lectrica and Enel own three distribution companies each, while CEZ and E.ON own the other two. Electrica is a leading player in the distribution sector, in terms of area covered and users. Electrica SA, which has a new CEO, Iuliana Andronache, owns 78% in three subsidiaries operating in the electricity distribution market on a concession agreement ending in 2054 (with an option to extend by 24.5 years) and 100% in a services subsidiary, Electrica Serv (“ES”), supporting the distribution business ‒ Electrica Distributie Transilvania Nord (“EDTN”) ‒ Electrica Distributie Transilvania Sud (“EDTS”) ‒ Electrica Distributie Muntenia Nord (“EDMN”). Electrica owns 194,819 km of voltage lines (7,577 km HV; 44,808 km MV; 142,434 km LV), operates 40.8% of Romania’s territory (97,996 km2). Company distributed 4.5 TWh of electricity in Q1 2016 to 3.65 mn users, which means 3% increase compared to Q1 2015. Electrica reported revenues of lei 1.4 bn (€312 mn), a 4.4% increase vs Q1 2015, EBITDA: lei 258 mn (€57.4 mn), 12% higher compared to same period last year, a Net Profit: lei 142 mn (€31.6 mn), a 11.8% increase vs Q1 2015, Net Debt/(Cash): lei (2.505 bn) (€560 mn). Enel is a multinational energy company active in more than 30 countries on four continents. It has an installed capacity of about 89 GW and generates electricity and

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gas through a network covering about 1.9 million km. With 61 million consumers worldwide, Enel owns the largest customer base compared to European companies in this sector and is one of the largest power companies in the continent in terms of its installed capacity and the reported EBITDA. Present on the market in Romania since 2005, Enel is, at present, the largest private investor in the energy field, with operations in the sector of distribution and supply of electricity and in that of the production of electricity from renewable sources. Enel has over 3,100 employees in Romania and provides services to 2.7 million clients in three critical areas of the country: Southern Muntenia (including Bucharest), Banat and Dobrogea, covering almost a third of the local market. Enel Distribution manages and modernizes the electrical networks in Banat, Dobrogea and Southern Muntenia, having as its main objective improveing the quality of the distribution service. It distributes annually approximately 15 TWh of electricity through an electrical network of over 90,000 km and 274 transformation stations. CEZ group has been present on the Romanian market since 2005, with the acquisition of the distribution company Electrica Oltenia SA, which, after its transformation process, ensures the power supply to seven counties: Argeş, Dolj, Gorj, Mehedinţi, Olt, Vâlcea and

Teleorman. CEZ Group businesses in Romania are represented by the eight companies - CEZ Distribuţie, CEZ România, CEZ Vânzare, CEZ Trade, Tomis Team, MW Invest, Ovidiu Development şi TMK Hydroenergy Power. CEZ Distribution ensures the supply of electricity to 1,409,782 customers from 7 counties in the region of Oltenia: Dolj, Argeş, Olt, Gorj, Vâlcea, Mehedinţi and Teleorman. CEZ group in Romania registered at the end of 2014 a profit of 478 970 thousand lei before deducting interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). The EBITDA resulting from the activities of distribution and supply increased by 82 384 lei compared to last year. The amount of energy distributed to the final customers was 6 316 GWh, which represents a slight decrease from last year, as a result of a drop in energy consumption, especially in the area of non-residential clients. E.ON is the first integrated distributor of natural gas and electricity. The company provides electricity to more than 2,540 localities and natural gas to more than 1,000 localities. Currently, the company provides electricity and gas for over 3 million consumers in 20 counties, by about 457,000 more consumers than it had in its portfolio in 2005. In 2015, the E.ON Group reported a consolidated turnover of the companies in Romania of 4.9 billion lei (about.1.1 billion euros), similar WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRICITY to that of 2014. The volumes of traded natural gas and electricity amounted to 28.4 TWh. Forecasts for this year’s turnover will register a slight increase compared to 2015.

Investment in networks One of the problems reported in the area of electricity distribution consists in the huge losses in the distribution networks, caused by outdated equipment and infrastructure, on the one hand, and theft from the network, on the other hand. Distribution operators have made substantial investments over the past decade to improve RED performance. According to a study commissioned to Boston Consulting Group by the Federation of Associations of Energy Utility Companies (ACUE), between 2008 and 2014, there were made significant investments in electricity transmission and distribution networks, worth 9.7 billion lei. From their privatization to this date, natural gas and electricity companies, which are members of the ACUE Federation, have invested in Romania approximately 8.7 billion euro. According to ANRE, which monitors the investment plans of the distribution companies, in the first eight months of last year more than 90 million euros were invested in the modernization of distribution networks, transformation stations, in smart metering, etc., out of an envisaged total of approximately 275 million euros. The largest amount invested, according to partial data, belongs to Electrica SA, with 172.39 million lei, ENEL, with 100.14 million lei and CEZ Distribution - 81.59 million lei. EON has reported an amount of investment in the electricity sector of 240 million (54 million euros) in 2015, the biggest since taking over the distribution of electrical power in the area in 2005.

Smart metering Under the provisions of Art. 66 of the Law on electricity and natural gas, no.123/2012, with subsequent amendments and additions, and of the conclusions of the study Smart Metering in Romania, carried out by A.T. Kearney Company, ANRE launched the process of implementing

intelligent electricity metering systems by approving Order no. 91/2013 and Order No. 145/2014 regarding the implementation of smart electricity metering, which defined the functionality of smart electricity metering systems to be installed in Romania, as well as the stages that are to be followed until implementation and the national plan for the implementation of intelligent electricity metering systems. In 2015, ANRE monitored the progress of the pilot projects for the implementation of intelligent metering systems: it defined a set of performance indicators for smart metering systems, so that the evolution of the smart electricity metering systems can be monitored during the implementation process and for a period after its conclusion. It also defined the implementation areas by establishing the relevant data and information that characterize these areas in technical, economic, sociodemographic and qualitative terms. The analysis report of the progress of the pilot projects for the implementation of intelligent metering systems has revealed the following main conclusions: the post-implementation results relating to the benefits concerned are irrelevant for all the pilot projects due to the very short period from the date of implementation of the pilot

projects to the date of reporting the achievements (the absence of relevant monitoring periods) and this does not provide convincing premises for the substantiation of decisions relating to roll-out. The cost-benefit analyses submitted by the distribution operators do not allow a comparative analysis of the results obtained, being completed on different models of analysis, focusing on the operator’s business strategy, with specific emphases. The results of the costbenefit analyses are positive for the companies Enel Distribuție, E.ON Distribuţie România and FDEE Transilvania Sud and negative for CEZ distribution. The result is the necessity that ANRE should impose a detailed cost-benefit analysis model or that ANRE should undertake the costbenefit analysis for all distribution operators, possibly through an impartial external consultant, in order to avoid charges of opacity or lack of objectivity. ANRE will approve the rhythm applied by licensee distribution operators for the implementation of smart electricity metering systems (which targets their implementation for about 80% of the end customers by 2020) and will examine the licensee distribution operators’ proposals relating to the plans for the implementation of smart metering systems for the period 2016-2020. 131


COMPANY PROFILE

NAKITA, TOP PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN THE FIELD OF WORK SAFETY The Mureş-based company Nakita has produced and distributed equipment and offered consultancy for health and safety in the work place, for over 20 years. Whether in the area of electrical safety or work safety equipment in general, Nakita provides a large number of companies across the country with the most state-of-the-art and efficient products.

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akita is an important supplier of electrical safety products, intended for the national power system, but also for the field of work safety equipment. The company led by Lucian Cueșdeanu, together with Alin and Lygia Cueșdeanu, has been on a continuous ascending trend since 1992, when it started activity as a supplier of high-altitude working equipment. Subsequently it specialized on a complex range of equipment and tools for electrical safety and work protection, Nakita gaining the confidence of the market and offering both quality equipment and necessary consultancy. Lucian Cueşdeanu believes that Nakita’s performance is based on high quality products, but also on the very good training of the people: “Some of our products come from outstanding suppliers, while others are made here, in Târgu Mureş. We have invested in machines necessary for the manufacturing process and in the testing of equipment and products. Both in the area of work safety in general, but especially in the area of eletrosecurity, the lives of users depends on the smallest detail. For this reason, the quality of the products is extremely important. We provide safe and reliable products, adapted to each user”. Alin Cueședeanu has provided details about the flexible offer, customized to the needs of the beneficiary: “we provide top products, but also products in the economy category, which have lower prices. All are high quality, tested and certified according to the European standards in force and with a long warranty period”. The Nakita products reach the entire country, the beneficiaries including: Electrica, Nuclearelectrica, Hidroelectrica, E-ON, Enel, CEZ, Arcelor Mittal, Apa Nova București, Petrom, Rompetrol etc. Two years ago, Nakita launched a new production hall, at its headquarters in Târgu Mureş, equipped with modern

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and high-performing machines, in the field of electrical safety processing. The value of the investment amounts to over 1 million lei, a portion of the sum coming from European funds. The managers of the Mureş-based company believe that the value of the team they are leading is very important, because people are the ones that can generate confidence, giving the beneficiary the most accurate and useful solutions. Nakita has a certified laboratory for electrical and dielectrical tests, RENAR, where various measurements can be made.

Top products Nakita offers a wide range of work safety products, such as gloves, clothing, footwear, goggles and visors, ear protectors, helmets, welding equipment, semimasks and masks, etc. The equipment is specifically designed according to the nature of the activity (welding, chemical industry, pharmaceutical industry, etc.), from the usual protection against artificial mechanical risks, thermal risks,

electrical risks, up to complex chemical protection.

Working at a height Nakita has the best solutions for individual and complex protection systems for working at a height. The equipment covers all the fields of activity that require insurance against accidental falls during climb/descent or working at a height. The Mureş-based company offers solutions for any working conditions, ranging from simple insurance situations to complete systems, equipment for access in difficult-to-reach spaces and special anchoring devices. The company also offers services such as the periodic checking of equipment.

Electrosecurity Nakita provides electrical safety equipment for the national energy system, necessary for working in electrical installations and lines. Nakita makes available equipment from its own production base, but also from its collaboration with important companies in the field. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COMPANY PROFILE

NAKITA, PRODUSE ȘI SERVICII DE TOP ÎN PROTECȚIA MUNCII Compania mureșeană Nakita produce și distribuie echipamente și oferă consultanță pentru securitatea și sănătatea în muncă, de peste 20 de ani. Fie că este vorba despre electrosecuritate sau echipamente de protecția muncii în general, Nakita furnizează unui număr mare de companii din întreaga țară, cele mai performante și eficiente produse.

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akita este un important furnizor de produse de electrosecuritate, destinate sistemului energetic național, dar și în domeniul echipamentelor de protecția muncii. Firma condusă de Lucian Cueșdeanu, alături de Alin și Lygia Cueșdeanu se află într-o ascensiunea continuă, începând din 1992, când și-a început activitatea ca furnizor de echipamente de lucru la înălțime. Specializată ulterior pe o gamă complexă de echipamente și instrumente de electrosecuritate și produse necesare protecției muncii, Nakita a câștigat încrederea pieței, oferind atât echipamente de calitate, cât și consultanța necesară. Lucian Cueșdeanu consideră că performanțele Nakita se bazează pe produse de calitate, dar și o foarte bună pregătire a oamenilor: “O parte dintre produsele noastre vin de la furnizori de marcă, iar celelalte sunt fabricate aici, la Târgu Mureș. Am investit în utilaje necesare procesului de fabricație și de testare a echipamentelor și produselor. Atât în protecția muncii la modul general, dar mai ales în domeniul eletrosecurității, viața utilizatorilor depinde de orice detaliu. Din acest motiv, calitatea produselor este extrem de importantă. Noi oferim produse sigure și fiabile, adaptate fiecărui utilizator în parte”. Despre plierea ofertei, în funcție de nevoile beneficiarului, a oferit detalii Alin Cueșdeanu: “Furnizăm produse de top, dar și produse din categoria economic, care au prețuri mai mici. Toate sunt de calitate, testate și certificate după normele europene în vigoare și cu perioadă mare de garanție”. Produsele Nakita ajung în întreaga țară, printre beneficiari numărânduse: Electrica, Nuclearelectrica, Hidroelectrica, E.ON, Enel, CEZ, Arcelor Mittal, Apa Nova București, Petrom, Rompetrol etc. În urmă cu 2 ani, Nakita a pus în funcțiune o nouă hală de producție, la sediul din Tîrgu Mureș, dotată cu

utilaje moderne și performante, în domeniul prelucrărilor pentru zona de electrosecuritate. Valoarea investiției se ridică la peste 1 milion de lei, o parte din sumă provenind din fonduri europene. Managerii firmei mureșene consideră că valoarea echipei pe care o conduc este foarte importantă, deoarece oamenii sunt cei care pot genera încredere, oferind beneficiarului cele mai corecte și utile soluții. Nakita deține un laborator de încercări electrice și dielectrice acreditat RENAR, unde pot fi făcute diverse măsurători necesare.

Produse de top Nakita oferă o gamă largă de de produse de protecția muncii precum: mănuși, îmbrăcăminte, încălțăminte, ochelari și viziere, antifoane, căști de protecție, echipamente de sudură, semimăști și măști etc. Echipamentele au specific în funcție de natura activității (sudură, industria chimică, industria farmaceutică etc.) de la protecția uzuală împotriva riscurilor mecanice artificiale, riscuri termice,

riscuri electrice, până la protecția chimică complexă.

Lucru la înățime Nakita are soluții optime la echipamente individuale și sisteme complexe de protecție pentru lucru la înălțime. Echipamentele acoperă toate domeniile de activitate care necesită asigurare împotriva căderilor accidentale în timpul urcării/coborârii sau a lucrului la înălțime. Firma mureșeană pune la dispoziție soluții pentru orice condiții de lucru, începând de la situații simple de asigurare, până la sisteme complete, echipamente pentru acces în spații greu accesibile și dispozitive speciale de ancorare. Firma oferă și servicii de verificare periodică a echipamentelor.

Electrosecuritate Nakita furnizează echipamente de electrosecuritate pentru sistemul energetic național, necesare pentru lucrul în instalații și linii electrice. Nakita pune la dispoziție echipamente din baza proprie de producție, dar și din colaborarea cu firme consacrate. 133


THERMAL ENERGY

THE CENTRALIZED THERMAL POWER SYSTEM, IN A CRITICAL CONDITION Urban systems of centralized heat supply and cogeneration represent, Romania, the most deficient energy subsector, as the National Regulation Authority for the Public Utilities Community Services concluded in an analysis published at the end of 2014, also valid today. The causes identified by the authors refer to the physical and moral wear of the installations and equipment, the total energy losses between the source and the buildings, between 35 and 77%, the insufficient financial resources for operation, maintenance, rehabilitation and modernization, and the complex social problems generated by energy bills.

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oru Ciocan, President of the National Regulation Authority for the Public Utilities Community Services (ANRSC), presented, in March, the dramatic situation of the centralized thermal power system in Romania. In early 2016 only 64 suppliers of thermal energy still operated in 3180 localities on the Romanian territory, compared to the 315 that were operating in 1990. According to the ANRSC report given in April on the month of March, 1,275,459 apartments were connected to the centralized system, of which almost 45% -563,199 are in Bucharest, serviced by RADET, covering 76% of the housing in the capital. Comparatively, in 1992 2.9 million apartments were connected in the centralised system, with 8. 5 million inhabitants, while today we speak of 3.6 million inhabitants in the 1.275 million apartments left in the system: less than half. The most disconnected area is the central part of the country, where there are 23,700 housing units in the system. By comparison, in the Northwest area, 96,400 housing units are still included in the centralized heat system, 107,000 in Banat and the West of the country, and the South and East of Romania remain, by including the capital, the most connected areas, with 1 million apartments in the network. In 2015, the production amounted to 12 million gcalories in the centralized system, of which 5.6 million gcal of renewable products. But only 3.7% comes from power plants that run on biomass, as is the case of Vatra Dornei, where paradoxically the cost of biomass is 134

Doru Ciocan, President, ANRSC

higher than that of natural gas. But producers are optimistic. “The use of biomass in general in Romania will register an exponential rise in the years ahead. There is an EU directive (DEE12/27/ EU), which states that by 2020 the heating of dwellings must be min. 50% from renewable energy sources. For this purpose, the most practical is the production of hot water in biomass plants”, as Benkő Sándor, owner of the company Konstrastwege in Miercurea Ciuc, which holds the license for the cultivation of energy willow for Romania and the Republic of Moldova, has assured us. In Romania, there are currently 10 capacities for the production

of thermal energy from biomass fuel in Taşca, Întorsura Buzăului, Gheorgheni, Miercurea Ciuc, Huedin, Vatra Dornei, Suceava, Vlăhiţa, Horezu, Nehoiu. The development of these types of heat production capacities were supported by the thermal heating programme 2006-2015, which was extended until 2020 and is financed from the budget of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Administration.

Lack of interest in centralized systems In an analysis published at the end of 2014, ANRSC identified the main WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


THERMAL ENERGY causes that have led to a rise in the phenomenon of disconnection and debranching. These include: the appearance and characteristic expression of the financial and economic crisis, which has changed the management and commercial conduct of the suppliers and beneficiaries, a massive increase in the price of energy resources that have the largest share in the heat price, compared with revenues of the population, which has resulted in decreased energy consumption in the households, large debts for the consumers (domestic, industrial and public institutions) that, in turn, led to the payment incapacity of producers, suppliers and local thermal heat distributors. Because the payments to the suppliers of materials, raw materials, fuels (natural gas price has increased by over 400%, in the period 2001-2013) were not made, the latter have refused to supply the producers of thermal power and, consequently, have switched over to a full or partial cessation of service provisions. There has been a delayed application, by the local authorities and by the operators, of the principle “I consume only as much as I want and I pay for what I consume� because of the slow implementation of the metering process and the non-application of the legal provisions concerning the individualisation of costs, the overlap, amid these conditions, of the aggressive marketing of distributors of individual heating equipment and the tendency to accredit the false concept of considering these equipments as a substitute for centralized thermal power systems, the lack of explanations for the exaggerated growth in the number of local pollution sources, with thermal power installations in apartments, and their effects on the health of the inhabitants in the buildings where individual heating systems are used. Increasing the number of debranchings/disconnections, as the authors of the analysis explained, led to a galloping lessening of the demand for thermal energy in the centralized system, which led to an increase in production costs, by maintaining fixed costs, which led in turn to a reduction in income and, consequently, to an increase in losses to producers and the

cessation of thermal energy production and distribution in the centralized system of the localities in question. ANRSC pointed out that the territorial administrative units allocated insufficient funds for investment and repairs, and that a low degree of investment and repair implementation was achieved, a situation that also affected the replacement or upgrading of sources and networks. Moreover, a part of the local authorities proved a meagre concern or just carelessness for organizing, coordinating, monitoring and controlling the public service of thermal power supply, even though these were their legal obligations and duties: to ensure the continuity of the public service of thermal power supply at the level of the administrative territorial units and to approve the program for the development, modernization and

metering of SACET (a program which was supposed to include both funding sources and the term of completion based on the data provided by the operators of the service). As an example, during the period 2009-2011, the degree of investment realization was only half the planned level (52.79% -2009, 51.69% -2010, 53.62%-2011,), given the fact that many of the thermal energy production sources are older than 30 years, a fact that leads to achieving a relatively low yield. In 2015, the investment plan was achieved at a percentage of 66%, the total amount invested being 38 million euros. Another problem are the system losses, amounting to 29%, on an ascending trend, as pointed out by Doru Ciocan, but these could be reduced by investing in public infrastructure through the available programs. However, 135


THERMAL ENERGY Romania already knows a failure in this area, EU money having been lost because many local governments did not fulfil their obligations under the financing agreements. Thermal installations are very old, the ANRSC President showed. Another huge problem of the system are debts, the companies having still to recover, in 2015, debts of 1.5 million lei, while they had 5 billion in debts. “These systems are virtually bankrupt,” Doru Ciocan concluded.

Cogeneration the fundamental principle ANRSC has made several proposals to revive the centralised system, namely: cogeneration must represent the fundamental principle for restructuring the system of thermal energy production and distribution, increasing energy efficiency throughout the supply chain: resources, production, transportation, distribution, consumption, the modernization of the thermal power system for gas fuel (natural gas fuel), the acceleration of the process of energy infrastructure modernization in the case of related services of local interest, which involves replacing old equipment with new ones, but with superior features and performances to those that are replaced, referencing the pace of investment in systems for the production and distribution of thermal energy with the local, regional and national development rhythms, updating and implementing national strategies in the field of heat supply, controlling the manner in which the provisions in the field of heat supply are complied with by all participants on the thermal power market, increasing the involvement of the local government authorities in accordance with their powers and competences established by law, the use of renewable energy resources for the reduction of the price of thermal power and compliance with environmental requirements. Proposals came from high-profile associations. “Romania needs a strategy, a regulatory framework and a clear vision for the next 10-20 years, as well as local and national 136

Gerard Verdebout, President, ARPEE

policies to address issues such as the rehabilitation of buildings, the modernization of networks and capacities to increase energy efficiency and ensure safety in a sustainable environment. Highefficiency biomass cogeneration, energy from waste, modernizing transport and distribution, the thermal rehabilitation of buildings and energy efficiency projects are things that Romania must take into consideration in its strategy. As everyone knows, the heat system in Romania is in a critical situation, as less than 75% of the system is still operational compared to the 90’s”, as Gerard Verdebout, President of the Romanian Association for the Promotion of Energy Efficiency (ARPEE), stated at an event.

There is life after debranching An example of the involvement of a local public authority as regards the supply of thermal energy in the centralized system is the city of

Iasi, Iasi County, where the local administration show that there is life after disconnection from the system. In Iasi, Veolia Energie leased from the City Hall the public service for a period of 20 years. At present, even though before 2012 around 5000 housing units got disconnected annually, according to the report published in April by ANRSC, Veolia Energie Iasi has more than 37,000 connected housing units. Return to the the system involved, inter alia, a sustained program of investment. Both the municipality and the concessionaire invested in thermal power plants and in the efficiency of thermal energy production, so that the consumers’ bills would not be so high. For example, 23 km have been replaced in the network, largely by accessing European funds. The two legal bodies applied for funds available through the 2014-2020 POIM Program, hoping to draw 28 million euro through for the networks through a request for funding, while another application is about to be resolved. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ELECTRIC VEHICLES

ELECTRIC VEHICLES STILL NOT APPEALING TO ROMANIAN CONSUMERS Slowly and still at great distance from the European momentum, self-propelled vehicles with electric engines are making their way to the Romanian market. Last year 59 hybrid and electric cars were acquired, according to the data provided by the Association of Car Producers and Importers (APIA). This year, during the first quarter, 126 environmentally friendly - hybrid and electric - cars have been purchased.

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n 25 May 2016 Order no. 955 of the Minister of the Environment, Water and Forests was published, concerning the approval of the Programme Funding Guide on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in transport, by promoting energetically non-polluting road transport vehicles. The generous goal of the program is to improve the quality of the environment through the purchasing of new purely electric vehicles or new hybrid vehicles, two general interest goals being set forth for the sake of environmental protection: diminishing the effects of air pollution on the environment

and the population’s health, these effects being caused by exhaust gas emissions, and respectively diminishing the effects of soil and water pollution, caused by the spillage of hazardous substances from vehicles that use other systems of propulsion than the electric and/ or hybrid electric ones, via their gradual replacement with purely electric or hybrid vehicles. In this respect, in order to achieve the environmental protection objectives, the Guide sets out the procedure for obtaining irredeemable financing from the Environment Fund, granted in

the form of green tickets, for the purchase of new purely electric vehicles or new hybrid vehicles with external power supply, which generate CO2 emissions of less than 50 g/km. A green ticket amounts to 20,000 lei for the purchase of a new purely electric vehicle and, respectively, 5,000 lei for the purchase of a new hybrid electric vehicle with an external power source, which generates a CO2 emissions of less than 50 g/km. An applicant can purchase several purely electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles, benefiting thus, under the law, from several green 137


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tickets. The green ticket is to be deducted from the price, VAT included, of the new purely electric vehicle or the new hybrid electric vehicle, the difference being covered by the applicant. An applicant can also receive a single breakage premium if accepted into the Program for Stimulating the Car Fleet Renewal and if he or she wants to purchase a new purely electric vehicle or a new hybrid electric vehicle. For operators with legal personality or for legal entities without legal personality, the green ticket shall be granted on the basis of a scheme entitled “De Minimis Aid for the program on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in transport, through the promotion of clean and energetically efficient road transport vehicles”, hereinafter referred to as the de minimis scheme, established in accordance with the (EU) Commission Regulation No. 1.407/2013. Operators may require no more than the equivalent in lei of 200,000 euro (or 100,000 euro, if they activate in the field of freight road transport) at the time of the application submission; otherwise, the application is null, in compliance with the provisions of (EU) Regulation No. 1.407/2013. According to the vision of the representatives of the Ministry of Environment, Waters and Forests, by financially stimulating the development of the fleet of electric vehicles, 20,000 traffic polluting vehicles will disappear, enabling Romania to leave the last places in the European classification, where the first positions are held by Norway, France, the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany. 138

Funding for charging outlets The initiatives of the Ministry of the Environment are long term and answer the question that was raised several years ago when this program appeared on the public agenda and was materialized in legislative terms: all right, we’ll replace the car fleet, but where shall we charge the batteries? Especially since, according to some statistics, Romania is far away, in terms of the number of charging outlets, even from the first hundred. The representatives of the Ministry of Environment announced last year that it plans to finance 10,000 outlets, a spectacular figure if we consider that in many of the western states, with a few exceptions, such a level has not yet been achieved. Bearing in mind, however, that technologies in the field of electric car autonomy are rapidly evolving and already tend toward a target of 2000 km on a single charge, the question that remains is whether Romania needs, indeed, this number and such an investment. This answer has yet to be given and progress in this regard has not been made at governmental level. Until then, however, initiatives for electrical sockets belong to private companies. From companies that own restaurants to companies which manage different types of parks to petrol distribution stations or supermarkets, their representatives have understood the needs of the market. One of the latest such investments has been made in Cluj. At the national level, in May of this year, 55 electrical outlets have

been placed installed, 22 being in Bucharest.

Batteries charged from solar panels Furthermore, companies that are seemingly unrelated to the field are willing to invest in innovation and to offer alternative outlets for charging. One such example is encountered in Mureş County, where Fomco Group presented, in the second half of August 2015, an electric car charged from an assembly of solar panels. Fomco Eco Friendly, as it is named, is a Renault Twizy, on four wheels, with two seats, which can travel 100 km after a full 5-hour charging. “We have recently purchased an electric car in order to send a signal in favour of using clean energy alternatives. Furthermore, we have designed a system that allows the car battery to be charged from an assembly composed of 24 photovoltaic solar panels. Basically, the owner of an electric car can own such a station that can provide him with clean energy for about 20 years” as Nyulas Bernat, Fomco Group Director, has stated. According to the technical solution chosen by the specialists of the company Fomco Group, the photovoltaic system allows for the storage of solar energy captured by 40 sqm of panels in special batteries made for solar applications and will be able to provide the daily requirement of energy for charging an electric car. The car fuelled by the system can also be charged at night. The cost of this assembly of solar panels/ electric car reaches about 17,000 euros, plus the purchase costs for an electric vehicle, which range between 30,000 and 130,000 euros. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDITORIAL

SUPPORTING THE INDUSTRY The Romanian universities had and have a remarkable role in sustaining the energy sector industry. Patents, inventions, a more and more developed research area contributed to the consolidation of the energy industry in Romania and abroad.

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EDUCATION & RESEARCH

UPG DEVELOPS A METHOD FOR CALCULATING ROYALTIES IN THE PETROLEUM SECTOR “The oil industry has never been in the situation it is in today. My message would be not to give in. We should move ahead and fight to take back what we had so as to put the Romanian industry back on track, an industry in which we have experience, tradition and qualified personnel”, as stated by the Rector of Petroleum-Gas University of Ploieşti, Professor Dr. Mihai Pascu Coloja. This institution of higher education has distinguished itself, throughout its existence, through serious projects of research and development that have contributed to its international recognition.

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he Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti, a higher education institution with a rich history, was established by Decree No. 175, published in the Official Gazette of R.P.R. No. 177 of 3 August 1948, under the name of the Oil and Gas Institute. In 1973, the Petroleum, Gas and Geology Institute of Bucharest merged with e Oil Institute of Ploieşti, under the name of the Petroleum and Gas Institute, headquartered in the city of Ploieşti. As of 2001, the institution of higher education is called the Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti. “The Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti offers a wide range of programs for undergraduate studies, master’s studies, doctoral studies, postgraduate studies, in the form of intra-mural education, while for some degrees it also offers forms of distance learning or part-time learning. The Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti is renowned both at home and abroad, and the degrees awarded by the technical faculties of our University

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are recognized throughout the world”, as the Rector, Professor Dr. Mihai Pascu Coloja, has emphasized. In the academic year 2005-2006, The Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti redesigned the curricula of

all its specialties, in line with the European requirements, stipulated in the documents of the so-called Bologna process. The Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti has obtained the maximum rating in 2008 - “a highly reliable institution” - following the process of external institutional evaluation conducted by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education. The Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti has been instrumental in recent decades in training specialists for the specialized industries in Romania and in the world. Beyond the particularly important educational side, throughout its history, the institution of higher education from Prahova County has had serious contributions to Romanian research, numerous types of equipment and machinery being patented in the university’s laboratories, a tradition that is maintained today. “Research and development represent WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDUCATION & RESEARCH the decisive steps for the international recognition of the Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti. The teachers of our university make significant efforts to conduct high-quality research. This is carried out on two main directions: the development of traditional research areas for technical specializations, on the one hand, and the foundation of new research areas for emerging specializations in the economic and humanist fields, on the other hand. The high level of our research activity is proved by the large number of specialists trained in our university, occupying important positions of leadership today both in the country and abroad. The Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti is continuously interested in raising its international prestige by increasing the mobility of students and teachers and by supporting the recognition of its educational programs”, as the Rector points out in his message. One of the achievements the higher education institution prides itself on is the mechanical tests laboratory, whose equipment was financed from structural funds of about 4 million euros. “This testing laboratory, especially for pipelines, is used for the development of research themes, in particular at the request of some very powerful oil companies from Romania and abroad, on the basis of contracts with oil producers or with major companies in the natural gas sector, such as SNGN Romgaz SA Mediaș și SNTGN Transgaz SA”, as Prof. Dr. Ion Bolocan, Vice-Rector in charge of Scientific Research, explains. In all the other labs there is modern equipment and classic furnishing according to the type of laboratory and the teachers’ research performance. Performance in scientific research is measured by the research contracts made with various companies, with national agencies, with EU agencies, by scientific journals recognized nationally that can give value to the articles that the university’s teachers publish, and all of these research activities are quantified very rigorously in the numbers of hours or the number of points. “A measure was taken at the university, which gave very good results, including the obligation that teachers accomplish their research workload, assessed on the basis of the articles they publish, the scientific research agreements they are engaged in, namely the measure of granting salary increases to teachers with

high achievements in scientific research. This has led to a growth of indicators by about 7 times over the last four years. We practise a very small overhead to research contracts, allowing teachers to decide on the money. Overhead is stimulating in that we apply a smaller overhead if in the contract statement, the researcher allocates a larger sum of money for the acquisition of research facilities. In this way stimulate the teacher to equip the laboratory”, Prof. Dr. Ion Bolocan, Vice-Rector in charge of Scientific Research, underlines. In 2015, 75% of the amounts received in research contracts represent money cashed from companies in the petroleum and natural gas industry. “These companies don’t give money if the research projects do not have a useful purpose, yielding results that can be used. We have found that there is such a request from private companies, in general, but also from companies with a majority state capital, such as Romgaz or Transgaz”, the Vice-Rector says. To understand the high professionalism of the teachers working for the Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti, we can mention two research contracts this institution of higher learning has in progress during this period. “The Government is obliged to change the oil and natural gas royalties. This is a very important issue and the National Agency for Mineral Resources, which is responsible for setting oil

and natural gas prices, has very loudly insisted that the Petroleum & Gas University of Ploieşti should do research, as part of various contracts, to determine the method of calculating the price of oil, on the one hand, and the price of natural gas, on the other hand. The contracts were concluded last year and have a term of completion this year”, according to Prof. Dr. Ion Bolocan, Vice-Rector in charge of Scientific Research.

The present academic structure of the Petroleum-Gas University includes five faculties: The Faculty of Petroleum and Gas Engineering, The Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, The Faculty of Petroleum Refining and Petrochemistry,The Faculty of Economic Sciences, The Faculty of Letters and Sciences. Address: Blvd. Bucureşti, no. 39, Ploieşti, 100680, Romania

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EDUCATION & RESEARCH Prof. Eng. Sorin Mihai Radu, PhD, Rector of the University of Petroșani:

“MINING NEEDS TO COME BACK!” The University of Petrosani has had a remarkable history as regards the training of specialists for the mining industry across five continents. This institution of higher education from Hunedoara County boasts an impressive portfolio of research projects in the mining industry and beyond. Prof. Eng. Sorin Mihai Radu, PhD, who was elected as Rector of the University of Petrosani in February 2016, has provided us with answers to key questions about the future of the mining industry and higher education in this field.

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lthough mining is in decline in Romania, the University ... you are leading has trained, over the course of time, specialists who are now working on all the continents. What is the future of the higher education in the field of mining, in your view? Unfortunately, mining in Romania is undergoing a period of decline, but I hope that the future will compel us to re-invigorate this activity. The whole world economy is based on these resources. Romania still has very many resources, from energy resources to rare metals, so necessary for the industry, for electronics and hydro-electronics, among others. In Romania, besides the two energy complexes – the Oltenia Energy Complex and the Hunedoara Energy Complex, which has problems, being currently in a state of insolvency – mining is still carried out at Roșia Poieni, where we have a large copper quarry. We still have all the salt mines in our country, all the stone quarries for the Romanian infrastructure, roads, highways, and all of these need mining engineers. We also have a uranium exploitation and I believe that some gold mines or quarries will soon reopen. There are still unresolved environmental issues, as regards the processing of ore with cyanides, but current and future technologies will solve this problem too. Mining must return because our

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specialists are highly appreciated, as you said, on all of the five continents and we are currently trying to create two specializations, one for mining engineers and one for specialists in the field of mining machines and equipment, with English as the language of instruction, so as to attract students from countries with a mining tradition. We had such students before, from the countries of Latin America, from North Africa - Maghreb, Central Africa and even South Africa, Viet Nam, China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan. We hope that these offers that we wish to present will bring us students, especially since some of our graduates from these countries occupy key positions in their countries of origin and know our University. I have met, at conferences, our graduates from African countries, for example, from Senegal. Also, over 100 of our graduates from the University of Petrosani have worked or are working in large quarries of copper from Chile, so there is this possibility. Moreover, I noticed that in Hungary they are beginning to reopen the coal mines, that Poland and Germany won’t give up coal mining and that even if there are problems of streamlining the coal mining activity in Romania, there are solutions, such as the gasification of coke, enabling us to keep exploiting these resources.

Apart from the educational programs you offer, the University has a history which, I would say, is remarkable also as regards research. What is the research infrastructure available to you and can present to us some research projects that you intend to develop or are underway? We have been approached, maybe not to the extent that we were up until 10 years ago, also because of the limitations imposed on the mining activity, to provide solutions to various exploitation projects, particularly in the salt and copper mines, as well as, to some extent, to other projects concerning the stabilization or even the closure of mines. Together with other colleagues, we conducted calibrations in France and in Germany, in particular, in the field of WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDUCATION & RESEARCH “Over 100 of our graduates from the University of Petrosani have worked or are working in large quarries of copper from Chile” Prof. Eng. Sorin Mihai Radu, PhD

the reconversion and restructuring of the regions with a tradition in the heavy industry: mining and metallurgy. We could not apply too much of what we had learned there because in addition to specialists, it is also necessary to have a political will, and policy makers do not always understand how to implement these scientific solutions. We have a very good cooperation with INSEMEX Petrosani, which means our participation in all the projects that entails the use of explosives, explosion-proof solutions, both in their laboratories and in some of our laboratories. We have great expertise in analysing the load of all kinds of rocks and also of materials that are made in our labs, we carry out almost all the tests on rocks and composite materials required by our industrial partners from Romania,

we have expertise here, too, and we also do research on the processing of useful mineral substances. Our research area also encompasses the reduction of energy consumption in the processes of cutting materials, in the processes of obtaining electricity based on fossil fuels, and we have modern laboratories for the analysis of environmental pollution. The environment is, again, an important component in our activity, so we have Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in this area, as we wish to contribute increasingly to the solving problems that concern the effects of the mining industry on the environment. For example, at the steam power plant in Paroșeni, the retechnologization conducted by a Japanese firm solved the problem of desulphurization, because the sulphur content in flue gases is quite high given the

1948 - year when it was founded 24 undergraduate specializations 18 master’s specializations 4 doctoral specializations 4500 undergraduate, master and PhD students 200 academics sulphur existing in the coal and the desulphurization process is solved in a proportion of 81%. Do you have or do you plan to carry out research projects in partnership with the mining companies? We now have a program in progress – Orizont 2020, we are accessing research projects with the economic 143


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partners, but we also participate in the big national and international projects. We have already concluded a series of international partnerships with universities and companies from Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Germany, France, Italy

Over 60 years of tradition The University of Petroșani has had a long and beautiful tradition. It is the continuator of the Institute of Mines that operated in Bucharest for more than 80 years and that was moved to Petroșani in the academic year 1957-1958. Only a few universities can boast such ancestry, attested by the 1864 Decree of Prince A. I. Cuza, which established the “School of Bridges and Roads, Mines and Architecture”. After 1990, by diversifying the academic fields and specializations, the Institute of Mines in Petroșani became the Technical University (1991) and then the University of Petroșani (1995). The training of specialists is carried out in three faculties: the Faculty of Mines, the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and the Faculty of Sciences. From 1948 up until today, thousands of engineers, economists, sociologists, mathematicians, teachers, etc. have graduated from the

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and Turkey, with which we hope to obtain European funding. In partnership with Germany, where the coordinator is the Environmental Academy in Freiberg and with Polish and Czech partners, we are already involved in a project to

University of Petroșani. The University has more than 4500 undergraduate, master and PhD students, taught by a staff of over 200 professors. Doctoral training is provided by 19 supervisors, recognized in the country and abroad. Solid instruction acquired provides our graduates with the opportunity to integrate and adapt quickly to the conditions and methods of work in other countries (USA, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Israel, countries in South America, Africa, Asia etc.). Everywhere, graduates from the University of Petrosani are listed among the best professionals in the branches they are active in. The reorganization of higher education, in accordance with the Bologna process, opens wide prospects to the graduates of the University of Petroșani, allowing them to be recognized and integrated on the job market in Europe. In 2009, the University of Petroșani was evaluated by the Romanian Agency for Institutional Quality Assurance in Higher Education and obtained a “high degree of confidence”.

streamline the extraction of lignite from quarries with a rotor excavator. We won the project in 2015 and are continuing it until 2017. The value of the project is, for our University, around 200,000 euros, used in experiments that we are carrying out in the Oltenia basin, for equipping laboratories in which we can make laboratory experiments and then implement them in these quarries. The University undertook, at one point, an analysis on the current technological state of bituminous coal exploitation. What recommendations were made as a result of that study, and have those recommendations been implemented? We have done a series of studies, in particular at the request of our economic partners. One of these studies targeted solutions for the optimization of extraction in the Jiu Valley. We participated with several teachers and we insisted there that streamlining cannot be accomplished without investments. Unfortunately, not enough money was found for these investments and that resulted in too high a cost per tonne of coal extracted from the mines in the Jiu Valley. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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Almost nowhere in Europe is the coal industry through the underground extraction system profitable, from an economic point of view, but solutions have been found for granting considerable subsidies in order to make such exploitations profitable. What is the advantage of using coal energy? The idea is that we can store this energy and we can release it into the system when there are load peaks and we can create a national power system. Whatever photovoltaic or wind energy is produced must be channelled immediately into the system, it cannot be stored, and that is why this coal-based energy should be maintained, because it has the role of ensuring equilibrium in the system, even if it is slightly more expensive. We gave solutions for the creation of energy mixtures, in the sense of having two coal-fired power plants, a big hydroelectric plant of the Iron Gates type, and also introducing in the area the sources of wind or photovoltaic power. I saw a coal-fired power plant in Slovenia which took over coal from an underground mine, but was included in an energy system along with a hydroelectric plant that was not far from this thermal power station, and photovoltaic panels were placed

on the station’s mine dumps. All three types of energy were concentrated, and the final energy released into the system was at a competitive price on the European energy market. So I guess that something like this could be introduced in the Jiu Valley, photovoltaic panels could be placed in certain areas on the tailings, and as regards wind-turbines, why not, we have the hydroelectric plant Râul Mare Retezat nearby, and there is one nearing completion on the Jiu, between Bumbeşti Jiu and Petrosani, and we have Caransebeș near and, perhaps, 2-3 groups from the Iron Gates. You see this energy mix in terms of packages, as far as I understand, and not as it is conceived now, in terms of primary sources? Yes, because it creates a balance in terms of stability in the supply of electricity for the system and reduces the price of the kWh can be generated into the system. You also had a few years’ experience in a private company in this industry, what did you bring to the University from that company? I adapted and I got accustomed to cutting-edge global technologies,

Contact information 20 Universității St., 332006, Petroșani, Hunedoara County Phone no.: 0254 542580 or 0254 543382 More information can be found on www. upet. ro

working with American firms, but also with Romanian companies and I developed an idea, which was still in the early stage at that time, concerning the extraction, on the one hand, of the methane found in coal layers and, on the other hand, the possibility to develop and bring to a certain stage the process of underground coal gasification. I also conducted studies there and we are trying to apply them, but we need large enough funds so as to store in the place of the methane we are extracting from the coal layers the carbon dioxide resulting from burning coal in the plant. This is a problem both at European level and globally. These have been the experiences that I have gained and we have started to develop them and to impart them to the students and other specialists in the field. 145


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TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CLUJ - 70 YEARS OF HIGH EDUCATION IN ENGINEERING The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, an “Advanced Research and Education University” as awarded with the Order of the Ministry of National Education no 5262/September 5th 2011, is today a tertiary educational institution having both tradition and national and international recognition.

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he Technical University comprises at present 13 faculties, in the two academic centres of ClujNapoca and Baia Mare as well as in locations, such as Alba-Iulia, Bistrita, SatuMare and Zalau. The educational offer, aligning the Bologna system, includes Bachelor, Master, Ph.D. programmes of study as well as lifelong educational programmes. The domains of study range widely from engineering to architecture, from fundamental sciences to social sciences, humanities and arts. The Department of Lifelong Learning, Distance Learning, and part-time courses also organizes activities and lifelong courses, post graduate programmes, as well as courses for professional development and occupational standards.

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Fully integrated in the international academic life, The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca pays attention to the international exchange of values, an aspect that is visible in the over 200 interuniversity agreements and in the large number of student mobilities. The opening towards the European and world space of education and research through an internationalization process represents one of the major objectives of the university. Besides education, research is the main priority of The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Research structures, from centres to platforms, are operational within all the faculties of the university. The performance related to the economic and social environment, international

cooperation and visibility, scientific novelty and pluridisciplinarity defines the research environment of our university. The fields of research cover a wide range, from engineering – most largely covered – to fundamental, social, humanistic and artistic fields. The research lines are also oriented along the world priorities and perspectives, that is from information technology and communications to renewable energies and ecology, from superconductivity, spintronics and nanomaterials to management and robotics, from mechatronics and electrical engineering to vehicles and future dwelling or urban planning and society, humanities and arts. The Technical University of ClujNapoca is defined by dynamism, and WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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a proactive spirit; it operates in the light of the international exigencies of our times, while striving to range itself among the academic institutions that possess traditions and values leading to societal prosperity and progress.

History of university The history of technical higher education in Cluj-Napoca goes back to the beginning of the previous century. The unification of the Romanian provinces into a single state, on December 1st 1918, opened new perspectives for education. On February 1st 1920, the Industrial College was founded in Cluj-Napoca. The new education institution passed afterwards through a series of transformations, becoming the College for Technical Conductors, in 1922. It was the only college with a major in electrical engineering in

the country and the forerunner of the Cluj Polytechnic Institute. Another technical college founded in 1920 was The College for Conductors of Public Works, specializing in roads and bridges, the forerunner of The Faculty of Civil Engineering. In 1937, the College for Technical Conductors, which had an excellent reputation within Romanian industry, was reorganized as The Electromechanical College. Following a petition addressed to the Ministry of National Education regarding the foundation of a Polytechnic Institute with three faculties (Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Forestry) in ClujNapoca, under the provisions of the August 1948 law for the reform of education, The Mechanical Engineering Institute was established as a faculty with two departments: Thermotechnics and Machines. The increasing need of technical

specialists helped the Mechanical Engineering Institute turn into the Cluj Polytechnic Institute in 1953. After the 1989 Revolution, Romanian higher education came back to the former academic tradition of the Western system. In 1992, the Polytechnic Institute was renamed as The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, and the three existing faculties at that time were restructured into seven faculties: Automation and Computer Science, Electronics and Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Machine Building, Mechanical Engineering, Material Science and Engineering, as well as the Technical, Business and Administration College. Starting with the academic year 1998-1999 The Technical University was completed with The Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning. In 2007, The Faculty of Building Services was established.

Our faculties: • Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning • Faculty of Automation and Computer Science • Faculty of Civil Engineering • Faculty of Machine Building • Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology • Faculty of Materials and Environmental Engineering • Faculty of Electrical Engineering • Faculty of Building Services • Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

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EDUCATION & RESEARCH International Relations Office International Relations Office (IRO) represents an organizational structure of the university and its purposes are: 4 developing international cooperation relations and scientific research, at academic level, with partner universities, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, centers of research and also international companies and foundations; 4 ensuring the efficient exchange between universities at institutional level for teaching staff and students; 4 increasing the high reputation of the engineering school in Cluj by informing the public as regards its excellent results along the years; 4 attracting a large number of foreign students in the training programs organized by the university. The development of the international cooperation is promoted through:

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4 establishing partnerships with universities, economic organizations, foreign governmental and private agencies, which can offer the teaching staff and the students from UTCN research, teaching and practice opportunities as well as study materials; 4 affiliations to organizations with academic profile and/or international scientific societies; 4 giving precise information to the teaching staff, research staff and students with regard to the international cooperation opportunities at academic level and in connection to the scientific research; 4 organizing student and teaching staff exchanges as a part of the international cooperation programs which are still in progress; 4 taking part in international academic and scientific gatherings.

Since 2012, The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and The North University of Baia-Mare (named hereinafter The North University Centre of Baia-Mare) joined together so that the university has now 13 faculties. The Faculties belonging to the Baia Mare branch are: The Faculty of Engineering, The Faculty of Humanities, The Faculty of Mineral Resources and Environment, and The Faculty of Sciences. Nowadays, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca trains over 20,000 future specialists in various fields through Bachelor, Master, Ph.D., and postgraduate educational programmes. Scientific research has been an essential preoccupation of the academic and research staff of the TUCN. The scientific potential of the University enabled it to organize a series of outstanding scientific events attended by a large number of Romanian and foreign specialists. The observance of the European standards can be seen in the evolution of international contracts and agreements as well as in the wide range of projects in education and research the university is a part of. A series of international conventions, agreements and protocols were signed with universities from Europe, Asia and America. Since 2003 TUCN has been a member of the European Association of Universities (EUA) and since 2007 it has been a member of L’Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF). The results in teaching, research, academic management and international cooperation and in improving quality in higher education according to European standards have been appreciated by the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ARACIS), which awarded the university “The High Level of Confidence” in 2007. Nowadays the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca is a modern tertiary education institution, passing through a period of genuine rebirth and confirming authentic capabilities for scientific and cultural creation as an “Advanced Research and Education University” among the 12 universities of this level in Romania which were awarded this degree by the Order of the Ministry of National Education no. 5262/September 5th 2011 regarding the ranking of the accredited universities in the national education system.

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Education. Bachelor, Master, Doctoral In the Technical University of ClujNapoca, full time and part time Bachelor level studies are offered in its 13 faculties (9 in Cluj-Napoca, 4 in BaiaMare) and the colleges running locally in: Alba-Iulia, Bistrita, Satu-Mare, and Zalau); the studies extend over four years for engineering sciences, only three years in the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences of the North University Centre of Baia-Mare and 6 years in the Faculty of Architecture. Bachelor level studies contain minimum 180 and maximum 240 ECTS points, according to the Bologna system. The exception from the rule is represented by the Faculty of Architecture with six years of study and 360 ECTS points. Bachelor level studies can be state funded or paid individually by fee-paying students. These studies are offered both in Romanian, English and German, in several faculties of the university. Master level education represents the second tertiary education cycle, coming to continue Bachelor level studies. These courses are full time

and conclude with a dissertation. Their duration is two years and the number of ECTS points ranges between 60 and 120. Master level study programs can be either of the professional type, where the emphasis is set on professional competences, of the research type, in which the aim is to form and train students for research, and educational/teaching type. The basic requirement for the admission to master level studies is a bachelor graduation diploma. Studies are offered in Romanian, English and French by several faculties. The doctoral studies are organised by the Doctoral School of the university. They are full time and research oriented, running under the supervision of a Ph.D. coordinator. The Ph.D. program includes a training part organised by the doctoral school and an individual research part. Ph.D. studies are supervised by our professors, though quite often students are supervised by teams where one of the coordinators comes from abroad from institutions with which our university has contacts. The duration of studies is three years and the student scholarships can be

financed by the state, by a company, or the tuition is paid by the student.

Continuous Education According to the Romanian laws, higher education graduates can take part in life-long learning programmes. Such courses are offered to individuals, all along their professional life. For many of them, such offers are part of their professional reconversion activities. Graduates of postgraduate courses (organised as single lectures or sets of courses) are awarded a certificate which shows the competences gained during the courses. Another form of education is represented by part time courses (abbreviated by IFR in Romanian) which are addressed, in a flexible manner, to people who cannot attend full time courses. An integrated form of education, part-time education replaces classical lectures with individual work; multiple support media serve at sending educational materials to the participants, similarly to Distance Learning. Meetings between tutors and students for the practical part of the curriculum are the basis of this kind of training.

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF CLUJ NAPOCA No 28 Memorandumului Street Cluj-Napoca, 400114 Jud. Cluj, Romania Tel. +4 0264 401 200 Fax. +4 0264 592 055 http://www.utcluj.ro/en/

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Romanian National Committee of the World Energy Council -

STRATEGIC PARTNER FOR ROMANIAN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT AND EFFICIENT USE OF ALL FORMS OF ENERGY 2015 was a year that was rich in events, organized under the aegis of the Romanian National Committee of the World Energy Council, chaired by Iulian Iancu. CNR-CME, under the directorship of Dr. Eng. Gheorghe Bălan, has organized a total of 19 conferences and symposia which have tackled the most current topics of the Romanian, regional and global energy sector. In the report of the CNR-CME for 2015 there are mentioned the publication of the biannual EMERG - Energie, Mediu, Eficiență, Globalizare - new series, achieved together with AGIR, the editing of four books by the counsellors of CNR-CME, the development of programmes and activities within the framework of the Working Groups of the Scientific Council of CNR-CME, and the achievements of the young energy specialists in the VLER programme, whose manager is the CNR-CME Counsellor, Prof. Elena Ratcu, and whose coordinator is Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Lucian Toma from the Polytechnic University of Bucharest.

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he report of the Romanian National Committee of the World Energy Council concentrates in over 100 pages the activity for 2015 of this important association for the energy sector. Briefly put, CNR-CME organized and became involved as a partner in the organization of 19 events -conferences and symposia dedicated to the energy sector as a whole, edited publications such as Mesagerul Energetic and EMERG and its counsellors can boast 150

of four specialized books that have seen the light of print. “We are at the stage where, this year, the Energy Union was created at EU level, its main objective being to ensure a sustainable and secure energy at affordable prices for Europe and for all its citizens. The Romanian National Committee of the World Energy Council (CNR-CME) has been promoting the concept of the Energy Trilema for several years, a

concept advanced and promoted by the World Energy Council, mainly focused on the balance between the three major vectors: security in energy supply, lower impacts on the environment and the accessibility of all energy sources, three major challenges for each country but also at a global level. It is obvious that the energy industry is in a phase of redefining its energy policies and that reindustrialization is a geostrategic necessity, this being the WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDUCATION & RESEARCH only unifying project in democratic and political terms. For this purpose, it is necessary to ensure that national and international bodies and each individual state should seek not only short and medium-term solutions and objectives, but also long-term viable solutions. Technological development can provide sustainable solutions to ensure energy security in the future. Scientific research will offer new solutions and ideas for obtaining the energy necessary for economic development in all countries of the world. In this context, the sustainable development of Romania largely depends on ensuring an optimum balance between the share of energy services and industrial activities. I am satisfied that CNR-CME can ensure this balance through the fact that for decades it has been an ideal platform for information on and communication of the most interesting and up-to-date information, studies, issues and challenges in the energy industry and an excellent means of developing, disseminating and promoting the latest and most valuable technologies and ideas presented by outstanding Romanian specialists”, the message of Iulian Iancu, President of CNR-CME, states. In 2016, the activity of CNR-CME continued at an equally intense, sustained and alert pace, the most important event of the association being the organization of the Regional Energy Forum FOREN 2016, from 12 to 16 June, in Costinești. “Our greatest desire is for the CNRCME Association to remain one of the most representative bodies in the field of energy in Romania and to attract new members from the entire energy industry, from the banking sectors, insurance companies, law firms, etc. We also want to increase the visibility and effectiveness of the

CNR-CME in all its activities, as well as to strengthen its cooperation with higher education institutions in the country, the employers’ federations and confederations in the fields of energy and environment, the trade union associations and structures, the associations/foundations in the field, as well as the State structures with responsibilities in the areas of education, energy and the environment. The programme Romania’s Future Energy Leaders (VLER), initiated and coordinated by CNR-CME, which has achieved outstanding successes and achievements in 2015, will still enjoy the full support of the CNR-CME in order to be able to contribute substantially to the creation of a solid energy leadership in Romania”, according to the message of the Executive Director of CNR-CME, Dr. Eng. Gheorghe Bălan.

Involvement in drafting of strategy The CNR-CME Board and the VLER Management Committee were actively involved also in the debates generated by the drafting of a new energy strategy. VLER adopted a declaration concerning the involvement of young energy specialists in elaborating Romania’s new Energy Strategy, as an absolutely necessary document for future sustainable development in the context of the new world energy paradigm. The final recommendation VLER was as follows: “In defining the energy policy, the State should oversee the observance and achievement of a perfect equilibrium between the four pillars (security, competitiveness, affordability and sustainability). Moreover, it should consider, in the light of these pillars, the interests of all the stakeholders, who represent, after all, the interest of the whole society. Attempting a

forced ranking of these pillars, the young VLER argue that a solid basis of energy policy will be ensured by a wellimplemented national energy security, correlated with other security strategies and with the national development plan, followed by competitiveness in the energy field, sustained by energy efficiency programs, and by a predictable and efficient fiscal and legislative framework that will lead to a tolerable price for the consumer and will limit the effects of climate change”, the document drawn up by the young energy specialists shows.

About CNR-CME CNR-CME is a founding member of the World Energy Council. CNR-CME mission is to promote the sustainable supply and use of energy for the benefit of all. CNR-CME members are: important national companies, trade companies, energy producers, suppliers and distributors, national electricity and heat regulatory authorities; nonworking organizations, decisions makers; governmental agencies, energy users, research and development institutes, universities etc. CNR-CME offers useful, various and latest information about all forms of energy, including coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, hydro-energy and new renewable energy, offering to CNRCME members the possibility to keep in touch with the energy policies at national and global level. CNR-CME represents its members’ interests during the meetings organized by the World Energy Council (Congresses, Executive Assemblies, forums, etc.). CNR-CME organizes events on energy themes, in order to provide conclusions and recommendations in the energy field and to elaborate points of view regarding the official documents of energy policy. The most important event organized by CNR-CME is the Regional Energy Forum - FOREN, which takes place every two years in Neptun. Being a WEC Regional Forum, it attracts specialists from Romania and abroad. So far, all editions of the Forum have had remarkable success. THE ROMANIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE WORLD ENERGY COUNCIL 1-3 Lacul Tei Blvd., 2nd District, 020371, Bucharest Phone: +40 372 821 475; +40 372 821 476 e-mail: ghbalan@cnr-cme.ro www.cnr-cme.ro 151


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ENERGY EFFICIENCY

THE APPLICATION OF ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEASURES CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE The main objective of energy management, when applied in an economic society, is to ensure a judicious and efficient consumption of energy, in order to maximize profits by minimizing energy costs, increasing in this way the company’s competitiveness on the market. Energy management services have a major importance in the context of an economic society by monitoring energy consumption and reducing costs through the implementation of a plan for improving energy efficiency, which contains energy efficiency measures that lead to measurable energy savings and have visible effects, such as lowering energy costs.

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his is possible either by hiring an energy manager certified by ANRE within the company concerned, or by concluding an energy management contract with an authorized natural person (PFA) certified by ANRE or a company providing energy services, which employs at least an energy manager certified by ANRE. ANRE has a program of energy manager certification underway. The legal basis for the operation of this program is represented by Law 121/2014 regarding energy efficiency and the Regulation for attesting energy managers and accepting energy service delivering companies approved by ANRE -DEE decision no. 2801/2014 At this point there are 448 certified energy managers (443 energy managers), 234 authorised individual energy auditors, 70 legal persons that are energy auditors, of which there are 15 PFA energy auditors, and 66 companies providing energy services are approved. Following the provisions of Art. 13 of Law 121/2014 regarding energy efficiency, a new specialization was introduced in attesting energy managers: energy managers for localities. At this time, there are already registered with ANRE 5 energy managers for localities, but the process is dynamic and growing. As a result, in the following period, the number of these specialists will be growing. In the process of certifying energy managers and authorizing energy auditors there is a permanent collaboration with professional trainers that provide specialized courses necesary for certification/ authorization. On the ANRE site

How is energy efficiency seen on the market? Vlad Ciobanu, a young entrepreneur from Brasov, proposes solutions and strategies for the energy efficiency of buildings. The company he set up, Zecaph Consult, specializes in identifying and implementing optimal solutions in this regard. “Investing in energy efficiency is undoubtedly the best investment we can make. Statistically speaking, it has the highest real depreciation over time. The reduction of up to 90% of the consumption radically changes the balance between buildings, unconsumed energy being the cheapest. Usually well designed a house of 150 sqm can be heated at a yearly cost of max. 100 euro. Reducing the energy

requirement basically comes down strictly to a much better insulation of the tyre, without thermal bridges, perfect sealing, high-performance windows, and a ventilation system for the constant intake of fresh air, which uses heat from the exhaust air to heat up the air that is brought in. As a recommendation, we can say that the bills from exploitation usually mean fines that must be paid due to the lack of prospects, of a strategy focused on energy efficiency, rebate on the quality of materials or labour. We cannot generate healthy, comfortable and energy-efficient constructions through the same design and working methods as before�, the entrepreneur points out.

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ENERGY EFFICIENCY applicants can consult the list of professionals trainers approved for this purpose, who comply with the curricula of the specialized courses approved by the decision of the Department for Energy Efficiency within ANRE. The assessment of energy management on the basis of the analysis of many energy management programmes implemented in different sectors of activity showed that: money and energy savings of 5-15% can be obtained in a very short time, at little cost or even free of charge, simply by applying aggressive power management; money and energy savings of up to 30%, with low and medium costs, can be obtained, with a brief period of redemption. The application of such measures is common. By making some

investments with high costs in the modern technologies and equipment one can obtain savings of 50-70%, the

Energy efficiency in the national strategy Energy efficiency also represents a concern of the specialists who participated in the debates on the drafting of the energy strategy. According to data presented at the work session on Energy Efficiency, heat and cogeneration, “In Romania, the main consumers are represented by: buildings 44%, industry 30.6%, transport 22%, agriculture 1.7%. Heat is covered mainly by using hydrocarbons - 75%, renewable resources - 11% (mainly represented by biomass, used in stoves and low-yield plants). Foremost consideration should be given to decarbonization in buildings, so as to be in line with the commitments taken at the EU level, but also with the commitments made in Paris. Decarbonization in buildings can be achieved by: low energy consumption, as a result of the insulation of buildings; greater use of renewable resources; the courageous use of electricity in buildings (through heat pumps and in particular by systems that accumulate heat); the use of secondary energy resources, resulting from the technological processes�.

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redemption periods in these cases being up to 5-6 years. Committed to energy efficiency In accordance with the methodologies for setting tariffs for electricity transportation and distribution services, ANRE determines, for each regulatory period, a program to reduce its own consumption (CPT) in electric networks of electricity transport and distribution, monitors compliance with approved targets and recognizes in the respective fares only the costs corresponding to these targets. According to information submitted by concessionaire operators of electricity distribution, the most important measures to improve energy efficiency adopted by them during the period 2011-2014 include: Investment; Improving the measurement of electricity; Management of electrical networks (examples): reducing fixed losses by switching into cold reserve of the power transformers from the transformation stations, reconfiguring networks: optimising operation schemes for reducing consumption and increasing safety in power supply to consumers, controlling flows of power: accelerating the implementation of the real-time schedule monitoring system of the purchased and distributed electricity, making measurements of load and voltage during periods of peak load and analysing results, charge balancing in the 3-phase network, redistributions of under/overloaded power transformers, the drawing of energy balances by axes, localities and transformers, identifying the areas with big losses, the intensification of actions for identifying electricity thefts. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


ENERGY EFFICIENCY

With regard to the results of the monitoring of the National Plan of Action for Energy Efficiency (PNAEE), the PNAEE Report is about to be completed, but currently we can present a series of preliminary data, as follows: a saving of energy on various PNAEE components of 275,926 tep/year was achieved in 2015. The greatest contribution in reaching this figure was that of the programme for the promotion of cogeneration. Another important component in PNAEE is energy management in industry. In the year 2015 682 businesses were monitored with larger consumptions than 1000 tep/year, of which: number of final energy consumers over 50,000 tep/ year - 6.74%, number of final energy consumers between 5,000-50,000 tep/year - 27.57%, final energy consumers between 1,000-5,000 tep/ year - 65.69%. Energy management for those 682 final energy consumers (including 52 branches, outlets) with an annual energy consumption of more than 1,000 tep/year is provided by 441 certified energy managers by ANRE. 231 consumers opted for outsourcing the energy management service, involving a number of 21 individuals (PFA) and 37 companies providing energy services approved by ANRE. In this context the coverage of certified and licensed energy management was 98.5% in 2014, with the following structure: 441 consumers with their own energy managers certified by ANRE (64.66%), with PFA and energy service companies - 231 (33.87%), consumers without certified

management - 10 consumers (1.47%). Monitored economic agents, in various sectors of the industry, included in their own energy efficiency plans saving measures of 141,767 toe/year, which will be implemented in the next period. The savings reported by the energy distribution and transportation companies amount to 4,045 tep/ year. There were identified and entered into the database over 105 localities with 20,000 inhabitants and 558 localities with 5,000-20,000 inhabitants under Law no. 121/2014 regarding energy efficiency. The number of rehabilitated public buildings by the local authorities in localities with more than 20,000 inhabitants is as follows:

2014 4 41 buildings - exterior insulation fitting 4 52 buildings - PVC carpentry fittings 4 24 buildings - heating systems modernization 2015 4 157 buildings - exterior insulation fitting 4 212 buildings - PVC carpentry fittings 4 210 buildings - heating systems modernization According to the data reported by the recipients of heating programme 2006-2020, the energy efficiency obtained as a result of the placing into service of the investment objectives in 2015 wa 2279 t.e.p. 155


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COMPANY PROFILE

TEHNIC TRUST TÂRNĂVENI CONSTRUIEȘTE CU ÎNCREDERE Compania mureșeană Tehnic Trust poartă semnătura multor lucrări ample de construcții din Transilvania. Zeci de mii de utilizatori de servicii de apă și canalizare, firme și instituții din mai multe județe au beneficiat de lucrări temeinic realizate, așa cum este cunoscută munca făcută de ardeleni.

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n cei 16 ani de activitate, scurși de la înființare până în prezent, Tehnic Trust și-a dat măsura profesionalismului în numeroase lucrări. Directorul firmei, Petru Coman, a explicat în câteva cuvinte care au fost pașii parcurși: “Firma noastră este din Târnăveni, o zonă a țării cu tradiție în construcții civile și industriale de calitate. Ne-am străduit să confirmăm și noi această idee. La început, ne-am bazat pe ambiție și pe priceperea oamenilor, iar în timp am adăugat experiența oferită de fiecare lucrare dusă la bun sfârșit.” Treaba bună făcută acasă, în județ, a deschis orizonturile companiei mureșene și spre alte zone din

Lucrări efectuate de Tehnic Trust Târnăveni Lucrări de alimentări cu apă prin conducte de aducțiune Rețele apă-canal, stații de tratare și epurare a apei Construcții de drumuri și poduri; Construcții civile și industriale Confecții metalice și hale industriale Lucrări de demolare a construcțiilor și de pregătire a terenului Instalații electrice, sanitare, de încălzire și de aer industrial Tâmplărie și dulgherie, montări geamuri Tehnic Trust are implementat Sistemul Integrat de Management al Calității din anul 2007. Firma deține certificate privind normele ISO 9001/2008, ISO 14001/2005, OSHAS 1801/2007.

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Transilvania. Astfel Tehnic Trust a efectuat lucrări acolo unde a fost nevoie de un executant bun, cu prețuri bune. Dintre lucrările mai importante ar fi de amintit: reabilitarea staţiei de tratare a apei din Târnăveni, reabilitarea stației de epurare a apei din Târnăveni, Aducţiune VoiniceniSărmaşu - reabilitarea conductei de aducţiune, staţii de pompare şi rezervoare apă potabilă, introducerea apei potabile în comunele Adamuș, Pănet și Bobohalma, modernizare și reabilitare străzi în Târnăveni, Iernut, Daneș, Băgaciu, Cucerdea, Mica, modernizare stații de injecție SNGN Romgaz SA Mediaș, modernizare stație de comprimare și uscare a gazului - SNGN Romgaz Mediaș. În afară de primării, printre

The Mures-based company Tehnic Trust has placed its signature on many ample construction projects in Transylvania. Tens of thousands of users of water and sanitation services, as well as businesses and institutions in several counties are the beneficiaries of numerous thoroughly executed works.

beneficiarii Tehnic Trust Târnăveni se numără: Ministerul Educației și Cercetării-reabilitare școli din județul Mureș, SNGN Romgaz SA, SNTGN Transgaz SA, Compania Aquaserv, Rodbun Group SRL București etc. Directorul Tehnic Trust, Petru Coman, consideră că fără o echipă sudată, fără proiectanți sau ingineri buni, fără muncitori de calitate, nu ai cum să o scoți la capăt în lucrări ample. “Poate că sună a șablon, dar acesta e adevărul. Seriozitatea ta ca factor de decizie, stabilitatea financiară, oamenii buni și calitatea utilajelor pot oferi beneficiarului lucrările pe care le așteaptă”. Petru Coman consideră că firma e pe un drum bun, în ciuda unui climat economic dificil și spune că va continua să investească în oameni și utilaje pentru performanțe tot mai bune.

SC TEHNIC TRUST SA Târnăveni, Județ Mureș, str. Rampei nr.4 Tel. 0365730849 e-mail: contact@tehnictrust.ro

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COMPANY PROFILE

PRIMEX MURES, A STRATEGIC ROLE IN THE GAS PROCESSING INDUSTRY Primex Mureș Company produces pieces that involve a high degree of precision, many of them being of strategic importance for the natural gas extraction and processing industry in Romania. The company’s portfolio includes highly complex works, carried out by a team of specialists in the field of machining and metal constructions.

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rimex Mureş Company, founded in 2000 by Nicolae Tâmpănaru, has a team of machining specialists, consisting of people who, until 1990, worked in various prestigious factories in Mureş County. The professionalism of this team and the machines used recommend Primex Mureş Company for high-precision works. Thus, the beneficiaries of the components manufactured here include companies such as Romgaz S.A. Mediaș, Romgaz S.A. Târgu Mureș, Romgaz S.A. Ploiești, Transgaz SA Mediaș, Transgaz SA Târgu Mureș, SIRCOSS Târgu Mureș, Petrom Ploiești, Exprogaz, but also many private companies that need component parts of high mechanical precision. The technologies used in the execution of these works involve metalworking through metal removal, electroemissive machining, flame cutting, electric welding, heat treatments in electric ovens, flat and round grinding, SDV execution: dies, moulds, casts for plastics, montages and ironware adjustments, plasma cutting, etc. The pieces and works made by Primex Mureş require an extremely high degree of technicality, complexity and precision, being destined, in particular to the segments of natural gas extraction and compression, but also to numerous machines in various domains that

Primex Mureș produce piese care presupun un grad ridicat de precizie, multe fiind lucrări de importanță strategică pentru industria extracției și prelucrării gazelor naturale din România. Compania condusă de Nicolae Tâmpănaru are în portofoliu lucrări extrem de complexe, realizate de o echipă de specialiști.

rely on metal components. Aside from fine mechanics, Primex excels at other production segments, too. The metalwork in many gyms, in several Lidl and Kaufland stores, the Mureș Mall Promenade, the hanging area at the Business restaurant from the entrance to the city of Târgu Mureş and the SPA area of the same complex, as well as several other buildings were constructed by the specialists of Primex.

Also, the company from Târgu Mureş has built labeling and packaging machines for various beer factories in Romania, pastry making machines, etc. The 60 people who form the team of Primex Mureş work in headquarters specifically designed for its own purposes, which covers an area of 1200 square meters. Nicolae Tâmpănaru is proud of his achievements. “We have very good people, true professionals, who can carry out the most demanding projects. What they do is always at the highest standard. In our field, any mistake, however small, can have serious consequences, so we do everything at the maximum level of quality”, the manager of Primex Mureș Company stated. 159


COMPANY PROFILE

ELECTROSERV. PERFORMANȚĂ, DE 24 DE ANI. Într-un domeniu, cum este cel al energiei, în care calitatea, precizia și durabilitatea sunt atribute obligatorii, Electroserv Târnava Exim poate fi considerată un model de urmat. De aproape 24 de ani, compania din Târnăveni trasează linii de performanță pe harta energetică a României, cu lucrările sale în domeniul electricității.

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Electroserv Târnava Exim Str. Rampei, nr 4 Târnăveni, județ Mureș Tel. 2065-446111 Email: contact@electroserv.ro Web: www.electroserv.ro

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lectroserv și-a început activitatea în domeniul “instalații și construcții electrice” în 1992, la Târnăveni. Fie că a fost vorba despre rețele electrice, posturi de transformare, revizii, reparații, automatizări etc., compania mureșeană a găsit întotdeauna soluții bune pentru nevoile beneficiarilor. Experiența și profesionalismul i-au permis să ducă la bun sfârșit lucrări mari, complexe, pentru beneficiari cu activitate amplă, cum ar fi : Electrica, Romgaz, Transgaz, E-On Moldova, Orange România, Cez Distribuție. Acestora li se alătură numeroase localități care au beneficiat de lucrări de instalații

electrice de diverse tipuri și multe fabrici din Transilvania. Între lucrările efectuate de Electroserv Tânava Exim se numără : proiectare, execuție și reparație rețele electrice 0,4-20 KV, execuție și reparație rețele electrice 110 KV, instalații electrice de utilizare de joasă tensiune, baranșamente electrice, montare sisteme fotovoltaice, încercări/măsurări la echipamente și instalații electrice, execuție de instalații electrice de joasă, medie și înaltă tensiune, pentru stațiile de conexiuni de transformatoare și pentru centrale electrice, reparații motoare electrice până la 900 KW, instalații electrice în construcție Anti Ex. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


COMPANY PROFILE

Directorul firmei Electroserv, Petru Coman, explică ce înseamnă munca într-un domeniu cum e cel al instalațiilor electrice : « În acest sector de activitate orice greșală poate genera riscuri majore pentru oameni, pierderi materiale pentru beneficiari. Din acest motiv, certificările și atestările cerute de lege sunt multe și obligatorii, iar profesionalismul oamenilor este extrem de important. Ne bazăm

pe o echipă performantă și pe experiența acumulată pe parcursul multor sute de lucrări.” Electroserv deține numeroase atestate și certificate care arată nivelul de calificare al firmei, însă nu acestea garantează reușita lucrărilor. Succesul este validat de clienții mulțumiți, iar din acest punct de vedere compania mureșană nu își face griji. Are în permanență de lucru.

Singura problemă generată de contextul economic dificil al ultimelor ani este dată de costurile scăzute, uneori la limita profitabilității, pe care trebuie să le practice companiile care furnizează servicii în acest domeniu. Managerii Electroserv speră însă că nivelul investițiilor va crește în următorii ani, ceea ce ar duce la o dezvoltare a activității companiilor din sectorul energetic.

Electroserv. High Performance, for 24 years. The Mureş-based Electroserv Târnava Exim Company has, for 24 years, been at the forefront of high performance standards on the energy map of Romania, given its accomplishments in the field of electricity. Electroserv has always found good solutions for the needs of the beneficiaries. Its experience and professionalism has enabled it to carry out complex, largescale projects for beneficiaries with a wide-ranging activity, such as: Electrica, Romgaz, Transgaz, E-On Moldova, Orange România, Cez Distribuție. To these are added numerous towns or villages which have benefited from electrical installations works

of various kinds and many factories in Transylvania. The projects carried out by Electroserv Tânava Exim include: the engineering design, construction and repair of 0.4-20 KV electrical networks, the construction and repair of 110 KV electrical networks, low, medium and high voltage electrical installations, electrical embranchment, photovoltaic system installations, electrical equipment and installations tests/measurements, the construction of low, medium and high-voltage electrical installations, for transformer connection station and for power plants, the repair of

electric motors of up to 900 KW, and electrical installations in Anti Ex constructions. The Director of Electroserv Târnava Exim Company, Petru Coman, explains what it means to work in the field of electrical installations: “In our field, any mistake can generate major risks to people or material damages to the beneficiaries. For this reason, there are numerous mandatory certifications and approvals required by law and the people’s professionalism is extremely important. We rely on a team with very high levels of performance and on the experience we have accumulated over the course of hundreds of work projects.”

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CSR

MAJOR ENERGY ACTORS UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF CSR ACTIONS The activity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a topic of interest to executives of companies, as investors and especially consumers watch and require their involvment in communities, according to the third edition of CSR Trends and realities survey in Romania – 2015, conducted by Ernst & Young Romania.

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n 2015, 63% of companies involved in CSR promised to allocate between 5,000 and 500,000 EUR for projects of social responsibility and sustainability. Thus, 14% said they would spend between 5,000 and 10,000 EUR, 27% would spend between 10,000 and 50,000 EUR, while 21% would spend between 50,000 and 500,000 EUR. Compared to 2014, almost half (49%) of the companies involved in CSR activities increased their budget for 2015. Thus, 32% experienced a 10% increase to the CSR budget, while 17% were allocated a budget of between 10% and 30% higher.

ROMGAZ, one of the leaders

A. Cinema EDU Programme B. George Enescu International Festival - 22nd edition C. Medias Central European Film Festival 7+1 - 5th edition D. Sibiu Jazz Festival - 45th edition E. Sibiu International Theatre Festival - 22nd edition F. International Chess Championship Kings Tournament - 9th edition G. Football, basketball, nine-pin bowling, table tennis, volley and bodybuilding teams or individuals H. Social responsibility projects, actions and initiatives in the

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fields of Health system (equipping hospitals/medical units with medical equipment, performing surgical interventions, medical investigations and treatments, among which: equipping 4 hospitals in Medias, Targu Mures, Sibiu and Blaj with medical equipment of high performance I. Actions for centers for disabled people, schools and kindergartens, rehabilitation of access roads, bridges and playgrounds J. Support for the construction and rehabilitation of religious buildings or restauration of some parts of the religious buildings

ROMGAZ activities in the field of social responsibility are performed voluntarily, beyond the legal responsibilities, for the company is aware of the role of corporations in a redefined society as a result of market globalization and the emergence of social and environmental challenges. Social responsibility means for ROMGAZ a business culture including business ethics, customer rights, economic and social equity, environmental friendly technologies, fair treatment of workforce, transparent relationship with the public authorities, moral integrity and investment in the community. In cooperation with the representatives of local authorities, organizations and educational institutions, ROMGAZ, by Casa Gazelor Naturale ROMGAZ (ROMGAZ House of Natural Gas), hosts WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


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a series of events dedicated to the community, such as book launches, painting and plastic arts exhibitions, symposiums and manifestations dedicated to national and/or international celebrities. ROMGAZ supports the sustainable development of the company and the community in the following main domains: sport, environment, social and economic. Supporting social responsibility actions and initiatives, totally or partially, within the limits of budgeted financial resources, has revealed the pro-active attitude of the company in the field of social responsibility and has increased the awareness degree of the parties as regards the importance and the benefits of applying social responsibility. ROMGAZ supported in 2015, totally or partially, actions and initiatives, complying with the budget, up to 11,7 million lei, as follows:

TRANSGAZ, a company for community Consistent with the responsible management application principle in fulfilling its mission, TRANSGAZ realize the importance of the fact that, sometimes, a financial support for a good cause or for an important

purpose, is vital and that the social responsibility programs and projects (CSR) initiated, are actively involved in the community life, demonstrating in this way its “good citizen� status. The essential role played by TRANSGAZ in the energy field from Romania and Europe is completed naturally with its willingness to support the real needs of all those who permanently contribute to the smooth running of its activity. Component part of its sustainable development strategy, the social responsibility policy has as objective permanent increase of company accountability degree towards its employees, shareholders, partners, community and environment as well as the impact effectiveness of CSR programs initiated for this purpose. TRANSGAZ policy regarding corporate social responsibility is based on a set of principles that define the interaction between the company on one hand and employees, shareholders, partners, community and environment, on the other hand. TRANSGAZ is involved in the community life both through actions of sponsorship and humanitarian financial support as well as through corporate social responsibility projects initiated since 2010. Priority areas where TRANSGAZ

was, is and will be socially involved are: sustainable development of the community, education, sport, arts and culture, humanitarian actions, health and environment.

E.ON, healthy german concept For the E.ON Romania Group, corporate responsibility is a fundamental aspect of the way in which they perform their activity. They think and act in a responsible manner, because they are convinced that everybody is responsible for the environment and community in which they live. E.ON developes a corporate culture, at all organizational levels. They get involved in trying to solve the problems of the community and they are interested in finding solutions for these problems. In 2015, they

Five key components in E.ON’s strategy: 1. Responsible corporate governance 2. Market 3. Environment 4. Community 5. Workplace

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alocated over 1,6 million euros for such projects.

PETROM, over 30 million on CSR One of the still few Romanian companies that adopts CSR actions is PETROM SA, among the biggest players in the Romanian market of the oil industry, a company which spent over 30 million euros for developing several social programs between 2007-2012. In the last years, PETROM SA contributed tu fulfill major

CSR main directions: • Actions dedicated mainly to students in the nuclear, energetic, technical fields and to young people in general, like courses, contests, creation and invention exhibits, etc; • Actions dedicated to the development of local communities in the areas of Cernavoda and Pitesti, to the improvement of the way of living, access to quality medical services, helping the underprivileged population, providing opportunities for education, youth capability development, increasing the number and quality of green areas, etc;

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needs in education, health and environment in Romania. For instance, the company contributed to the improvement of learning conditions of the children living in countryside through rehabilitation of approximately 80 schools with 15,500 learners. Through the programs „Andrew’s School” and „Andrew’s Country”, they gave pupils and teachers the chance of building a better world on their own. Still in education, they supported the performance of 2600 young Olympic students anf they granted over 300 scholarships through the program • Active participation in certain organizations promoting sustainable public policies in the economic, energetic, social, cultural field, like professional associations, institutes, resource centers, etc.; • Cultural and educational actions for an easier access to culture and personal development, supporting creativity and artistic manifestation, etc • Humanitarian actions destined to help segments of population affected by natural disasters or individual cases of people with disabilities through associations in this field, dedicated actions, especially for elders and children

“The PETROM Olympics”. Together with the Health Ministry, PETROM has tackled a pressing issue for communities in Romania: the acces to emergency medical special services. The program succeeds in extending the network of emergency telemedicine to 56 hospitals. In the evironmental protection field, through the program “Parks of the future”, over 67,000 trees were planted on 287 acres in Romania and 6 public parks were completely restored by 2014.

Nuclearelectrica’s vision The Nuclearelectrica’s CSR policy has the purpose of establishing the strategic orientation and primary directions of the company’s involvement in philanthropic, charitable and humanitarian actions for the benefit of the communities nearby nuclear objectives operated by the company (Cernavoda, Pitesti) and also at a national level. Company’s constant development and its projects’ sustainability for longterm development are strongly connected with the development, education, information, acceptance and public support of nuclear energy in Romania. Therefore, the investment of a share of annual profit in CSR actions represents a part of the company’s development strategy for 2015-2025. WWW.TRANSILVANIABUSINESS.RO


EDITORIAL

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EDITORIAL

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EDITORIAL

HIGHLIGHTS FROM FLAME CONFERENCE 2016 The global gas landscape was assessed and analysed from every angle by dozens of speakers at this year’s Flame 2016 conference in Amsterdam. Flame is the key annual event for global oil and gas professionals and discussion this year centred on some of the major challenges facing the LNG and gas sector today, visions for a flexible and integrated future and the role renewables will play in this. 167


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urope is the global balancing market for LNG – and that looks likely to continue into the near future as we move into a stage of supply abundance, according to Andrew Walker, VP of Strategy for Cheniere Marketing. At Flame 2016, Walker spoke about the context of increased LNG supplies worldwide, and the impact of these increased supply volumes on Europe, and the market as a whole.

LNG and the commodity cycle LNG has been through a ten-year cycle which saw volumes push into Europe in the late 2000s then flow

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away again, and we’re about to start that cycle again. The growth in LNG supply since 2010 has been pushing supply volumes into Europe at a steady rate, and those volumes are set to increase dramatically in the near future with increasing supply particularly from Australia and the US. Walker believes this flexing in supply and demand is to be expected in a long-lead industry, as the LNG market reflects the ebb and flow of rising demand, supply response, over-supply and adjustment seen in a traditional commodity cycle. Abundance in supply has also been facilitated in recent years by factors such as ease of access to capital, enabling projects to find investment more easily.

“Since 2010 we’ve had a growth in supply and Europe emerging as balancing market; Europe took this increasing supply, then the market tightened and we saw a supply hiatus and Europe starting to decant as the market tightened. It looks like we are about to start that cycle again,” said Walker. The in-flow of cargoes into Europe hasn’t yet started in earnest, says Walker, but it is on its way. “I believe this is a good thing for Europe; LNG will help diversify supply, competition is good, whether it’s competition between LNG and Russia or between LNG, pipe supply and domestic supply. An increasingly competitive marketplace is a good marketplace for gas.”

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Flexing global demand This in-flow in supply to Europe is taking place in parallel to a flexing demand in markets throughout the rest of the world, and a structural change to some markets. New markets – such as Pakistan and Jordan – are emerging, but the recent slowdown in some key Asian markets of Japan, Korea and Taiwan are the cause of some concern. Since the 2000s and until recently, Japan, Korea and Taiwan – that between them represent 70% of Asian imports - have shown steady demand growth, says Walker. But Japan has now plateaued, Korea has seen a dip in demand in recent years, whilst demand from Taiwan has also stagnated. Some of this can be explained by environmental, societal and policy impacts in already mature markets,

but the challenge for the industry is how to read this going forward, and only time will tell whether this softening in demand is due to structural or cyclical factors. Walker remains optimistic - India and China, as large volume growth regions with a nascent LNG market, are the focus for growth in demand in the region.

Future supply As with any commodity cycle, the view post 2020 will be markedly different to the next four years, believes Walker. “The current low price environment is making project FIDs (final investment decisions) harder,” he told delegates at Flame 2016 in Amsterdam. “The supply side is starting to slow in response to market signals; we have seen no FIDs this year to date and many are still floating.” Some projects – including Pacific

NW LNG, Coral FLNG, Tangguh T3 amongst others – are still slated for FID this year, but others – Jordan Cove, Douglas Channel, Mozambique LNG amongst them – have already been postponed beyond 2016. As and when these projects go ahead, and to meet estimated demand by 2030 - 45 new LNG trains will be needed to be sanctioned. Walker’s view is that more FIDs are required to meet future LNG demand. “This is a longer term industry – as we look beyond 2020 and coming supply abundance, we have to look at supply and demand beyond 2020 and a view of what will be the ‘new normal’. I think demand will continue to grow – we have not yet seen ‘peak LNG’.”

Gas versus coal In a panel session on pricing and security of supply in Europe, Mr de Aguirre discussed the potential

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for low gas prices to stimulate the European market demand. He believes this will be the case, especially with the current competition between gas and coal in the marketplace. For de Aguirre, it’s not only price that will have an impact, though: the regulatory changes introduced as a result of the COP21 commitments from 2020 will also result in a shift away from coal. There were mixed feelings about the impact of COP21 on the gas industry as a whole. Energy author and Oxford University academic Dieter Helm’s outspoken belief is that COP21 will have very little impact on the fossil fuel industry. Emissions have continued to grow since 1990, Helm told the conference, and there’s no

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good reason for thinking that will change. “It’s a story of achieving nothing in reducing emissions since the start date of the Kyoto framework.” Arno Büx, Chief Commercial Officer of TSO Fluxys, is convinced that a more integrated world will be a reality in the future. In Büx’s view, the gas sector must integrate with at least two or three additional sectors in order to thrive – the first one of these is the electricity sector, the second is the transport sector and the third is agriculture. There are many different aspects relating to these industries, but the obstacles that exist with all of them is regulation, says Büx. “The unbundling of the gas sector also comes from a very different perspective. It has

been designed in a world where there was an integrated gas industry from upstream to downstream with a single mission.” As a result of the campaign to tackle climate change, says Büx, the rules that have been set up to isolate different parts of the value chain to prevent us interacting also prevent us, to a certain extent, from reinventing the business and co-operating in more flexible ways with other industries.

The view from renewables Jonathan Gaventa, the director of energy and climate think-tank E3G, provided an outside observer’s perspective. He believes that the

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gas sector could learn some lessons from what has happened to the coal industry, which did not have a ‘credible long-term story’ around its future. He warned against a similar complacency in the gas sector. For Gaventa, there are three major waves of integration on the horizon for the gas industry – the first is the electricity market integration. The second will be the integration between sectors and between infrastructure types: for instance, we will see increasingly complex systems integration between gas, electricity, heat and digital both in buildings and at a macro-level. The third big integration is policy integration – in the past we have had a situation where our gas policy is based on expectations of rising demand whilst

renewables policy has been based on falling demand expectations. According to Gaventa, that will not always be the case. “It’s not clear to me that gas is the automatic winner in this space,” said Gaventa. “We’re seeing an increasing boom in new business models, new technologies for demand response and for different forms of storage. Gas will compete in this more flexible market, but it will compete against a rapidly increasing number of players.”

Key elements for a gas vision Amongst those players are renewables, such as wind. Giles Dickson is CEO of WindEurope,

believes there are some crucial changes that need to happen in a market where the percentage of renewable supply is growing rapidly. Dickson believes that we need a number of changes in the energy sector, including urgent reform of the electricity markets. He told the audience that WindEurope recently partnered with GasNaturally to submit a joint paper to the European Union with some clear proposals for changes to the electricity market. These proposals include more intraday trading, market balancing across wider geographical areas, full access for all types of power generation to balancing and other ancillary services and more demand response. “If the electricity market is designed along those lines,”

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EVENT said Dickson “then it’s better for renewables and it’s better for gas.”

A flexible market For facilitator Torben Brabo the challenge for the gas industry in partnering with other agencies is the sheer scale of gas projects. “We are not so good at small”, he says, “and we may need to wait for 5 to 10 years before we can offer the flexibility these renewables partners will need.” The importance of winning the battle for flexibility may be overemphasised by the gas world, said Arno Büx. “I think for the gas sector it’s more important to choose the battle around who will replace nuclear and the base load and how to construct price competiveness with regards to coal in the EU. That’s the name of the game.”

Partnering with Renewables Renewables were represented at the conference, joining in the future energy debate in earnest. In a session on a more integrated and more renewable European energy market Giles Dickson, CEO of WindEurope, spoke of his organisation’s recent partnering with GasNaturally to submit a joint paper to the European Union with proposals for changes to the electricity market. “If the electricity market is designed along those lines,” said Dickson “then it’s

better for renewables and it’s better for gas.” Multi-nationals also were demonstrating their commitment to a wider portfolio of supply. Total’s VP Oil & Gas Advocacy, FroncoisRegis Mouton told the conference. “We invest more in gas; we are not investing in high cost oil projects anymore as we believe they will not be necessary in the future, and we are investing in renewables.” Gertjan Lankhorst of Euro Gas believes innovation is vital in the industry, such as the integration of biogas, green gas and similar products to the gas grid. “If you do this, you don’t just reduce CO2 in terms of the amount that you use, but you also de-carbonise the fuel itself… As a gas industry ourselves we have to work on making our product greener.”

Opening up new markets

– why? Because markets are shrinking as gas is being challenged by policy decisions and consumer perspectives – we as an industry urgently need to address this as it’s a serious issue,” said Tor Martin Anfinnsen, Senior Vice President Marketing & Trading at Statoil. “I think the industry has been successful at creating more gas supplies,” added Total’s FroncoisRegis Mouton, “but now we need to be more creative and more dynamic in creating new demand.” This may be in the heating sector, in long haul transport such as trucking and also in cars. Martin Jahan de Lestang of Elengy outlined the potential from energy bunkering and smaller volume transactions – he confirmed that some cruise vessels are ready to start using LNG and there is continued potential in truck loading. In his new role as CEO of newly-created industry giant Uniper, Klaus Schäfer spoke of two major demand drivers – generation and transport. Other panel speakers reinforced the importance of these smaller scale projects to drive demand - Martin Layfield, Global Gas Segment Director at DNV GL, referenced the growth of small-scale distribution in India and other growth markets, as well as transport collaborations and business model innovations in the Middle East. Alain Bourgeois, VP of Gas & LNG at Bergen Energi outlined the company’s drive to grow the marine and bunker market and Boris Safner, Director of energy efficiency at BDEW, believes there is potential in the re-heating sector across Europe.

“I think that it’s demand rather than supply that will be our main concern

Written by Flame Conference 2016 Photo credit: Flame (informa.com)

Consistent supply Companies represented at Flame 2016 included: Shell * Uniper * BG Group * Gazprom * Cheniere * RWE * Centrica * Statoil * EDF * Gasunie * Edison * Gas Natural Fenosa * BP * Elengy * Fluxys * Storengy * EnBW Trading * Tokyo Gas * Eneco Energy Trade * Interconnector * Gassco * DONG Energy * Statkraft * GasTerra * Petronas Energy Trading * Gasunie * Sempra LNG * Gazprom Marketing & Trading * Engie * GRTgaz * JOGMEC * ConocoPhillips * Koch Supply & Trading * Mercuria Energy Trading * NAFTA * OFGEM * CEZ * Wingas * National Grid * Trianel * Enagas * Vopak * Total * Gas Natural Fenosa * ExxonMobil and many more!

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There was much discussion around the need for flexibility – and reliability – in supply in order to ensure demand can grow robustly. In the past, said Martin Jahan de Lestang, CEO of Elengy, there have been issues with the consistency of supply, and that has impacted market penetration and growth. “You were never sure that the gas would be there when you need it,” De Lestang says. “We see that there has been a fundamental shift in the industry with a lot of flexible LNG coming on stream and representing a bigger part of the global market. We can now rely on LNG for spot optimisation.”

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DISTRIBUTION

In 2016, Energy Mirror of Romania will be distributed at: Power-Gen Europe, Milano, 2016, June 21-23

Publisher Aurelian Grama Marketing Managers Alin Bolbos Phone: +40 757 036.817 alin.bolbos@transilvaniabusiness.ro Florin Marcel Phone: +40 740 075.219 florin.marcel@transilvaniabusiness.ro Editorial Ligia Voro Phone: +40 740 686.015 ligia.voro@transilvaniabusiness.ro Translation Carmen-Veronica Borbély Distribution Manager Szántó Attila Phone: +40 755 044.851 Accounting Lia Pamfilie, Emo Veres +40 265 215.613 Publishing House Association Education for Europe Address 18 Eftimie Murgu, Cluj-Napoca Transilvania Grup Business SRL Social address 18 Eftimie Murgu, Cluj-Napoca Address 1st Primariei Street, Chamber of Commerce and Industry ZIP Code: 540026 Tirgu Mures, Mures County Phone/Fax: +40 265 215 613 redactia@transilvaniabusiness.ro All rights reserved. Printed at SC Ceconii SRL Baia Mare, 83 Europa St., +40 722 366 945 +40 788 466 414 www.ceconii.ro Creative Director Răzvan Matei razvan@iq-design.ro Phone: +40 745 354.666

Organised by PennWell at MiCo Milano, the 24th POWER-GEN Europe and co-located Renewable Energy World Europe, exhibition and conference return to Milan, Italy in 2016, under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development. Adopting the theme of „Delivering an Integrated Energy Future”, the combined events represent the dynamic centre point, where a rapidly evolving power industry meets to gather information and compare views on shared opportunities and challenges. Attracting a worldwide audience, it is the industry’s premier event, resolved to discussing solutions for advancing Europe’s energy future. Benefit from attending more than 50 conference sessions, panel discussions, a comprehensive exhibition, technical tours and networking opportunities. Gain access to practically every aspect of the power market – all under one roof! Details: www.powergeneurope.com

Energy Future Conference and Exhibitions, 2016, Sydney, July 4-6

Having as main host The University of New South Wales, the second Energy Future (EF) conference will take place in Sydney, Australia on the 4-6 July 2016. EF conferences provide a unique platform to generate and foster nexus between the scientific world, policy makers, investors, industry and the community. This second conference will focus on Energy storage – from generation to distribution, and cover international advances alongside an impressive exhibition showcasing advanced energy technologies across the energy sector. The conference now features a session on nuclear energy, to provide constructive discussion on integration of nuclear and renewable electrical power. Details: http://www.ozenergyfuture.com/

World Energy Congress, Istanbul, 10-13 September 2016

The World Energy Congress, being World Energy Council’s global flagship event is the premier international, multi-energy forum for participants to better understand energy issues and solutions from a global perspective. The 23rd World Energy Congress will be held in Istanbul at October 9-13, 2016. The main theme for Congress “Embracing

New Frontiers” promises an innovative concept and content. This time, Istanbul is hosting the leaders who will build the future of energy from today. The 23rd World Energy Congress will enable dialogue among Energy Ministers and leaders from business, finance and academia around the world who will seek options for delivering sustainable energy systems on national, regional and global levels during dedicated sessions including the World Energy Leaders’, the Future Energy Leaders’ and the Energy Trilemma Summits. Details: http://www.wec2016istanbul.org.tr

Oil & Money, London, 2016, October 18-19

Oil & Money, the energy industry’s premier conference, is co-hosted by Energy Intelligence and the International New York Times. Since its inauguration in 1980, the Oil & Money Conference annually gathers the most significant senior executives from the petroleum and natural gas industry across the globe and continues to set the standard for candid, high-level discussion and debate on issues of the day. Each year Oil & Money continually attracts over 500 senior level executives from more than 43 countries. The 37th Oil & Money Conference is taking place at the Intercontinental London Park Lane and addresses current and emerging issues confronting the global oil and gas industry. Details: www.oilandmoney.com

European Autumn Gas Conference, Hague, 2016, November 14-16

As Europe becomes an ever-more globally interconnected energy region, continually opening up cross border gas trading markets and remaining at the forefront of both commercial and technological innovation, the European Autumn Gas Conference | EAGC is delighted to have selected The Hague, Netherlands – a city and nation that embodies all these elements – as Host City for its 31st edition in 2016. Entering its fourth decade EAGC will continue to explore micro commercial, strategic and political influences which are driving the EU Natural Gas and LNG agenda, such as the critical drivers for supply diversification and the immediate term security of demand opportunities. etails: http://www.theeagc.com 173


INDEX STATE AUTHORITIES

MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT Address: 2-4 Carol I Boulevard, 3rd District, 030163, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 07 24 46/22, 307 85 88 Fax: 021-307.86.01 e-mail: secretar.general@madr.ro www.madr.ro

MINISTRY OF ECONOMY, COMMERCE AND RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT Address: 152 Victoriei Road, 1st District, 010096, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 21 202 53 09 Fax: +40 21 202 53 28 e-mail: birou.presa@economie.gov.ro www.minind.ro

MINISTRY OF ENERGY

Address: 202 E, Splaiul Independentei Street, 6th District, Bucharest Phone: +40 21 407 99 11 Fax: +40 21 316 68 03 e-mail: office.cabinet@energie.gov.ro comunicare@energie.gov.ro www.energie.gov.ro

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Address: 31 Aleea Alexandru, 1st District, 011822, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 19 21 08/25 Fax: +40 213 19 68 62 e-mail: ministru@mae.ro, opinia_ta@mae.ro www.mae.ro

MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT WATER AND FORESTS Address: 12 Libertatii Boulevard, 5th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 214 08 96 42/9500 Fax: +40 214 08 96 15 e-mail: srp@mmediu.ro www.mmediu.ro

NATIONAL AGENGY FOR MINERAL RESOURCES Address: 59 Dacia Boulevard, 1st District, 010407, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 21 317 00 18; 317 00 94; 317 009 5 President Office – phone: +4 021 313 22 04 Fax: +40 21 317 07 80 e-mail: namr@namr.ro www.namr.ro

ROMANIAN ENERGY REGULATORY AUTHORITY

Address: 3 Constantin Nacu Street, 2nd District, 020995, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 327 81 01; 311 22 44; 303 38 00 Fax: +40 21 312 43 65 e-mail: anre@anre.ro www.anre.ro

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INDEX COMPANIES

AAGES

Address: 16 Agricultorilor Street, 547530, Singeorgiu de Mures, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 21 30 43, 21 59 60 Fax: +40 265 21 57 69, 25 07 06 e-mail: office@aages.ro aages.ro

ABB SRL

Address: 169 A Calea Floreasca, Floreasca Business Park, Building A, 5th floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 372 15 82 00, 213 10 43 75 Fax: +40 213 10 43 83 e-mail: abb.office@ro.abb.com new.abb.com

ADREM INVEST

Address: 20 Aleea Alexandru Street, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Tel.: +40 212 33 59 20 / 21, +40 212 33 11 69, +40 212 33 08 49 Fax: +40 212 33 59 82 e-mail: office@adrem.ro www.adrem.ro

ADVANCED TELEMATIC SERVICES ROMANIA

Adress: 22/305, Nicolae Caramfil Street, 1st District, Bucharest Phone: 0744.550.040 Phone: 031.417.88.77

AEM TIMISOARA

Address: 26 Calea Buziasului, 300693, Timisoara, Timis County, Romania Phone: +40 256 22 22 00, 49 09 27 Fax: +40 256 49 09 28 e-mail: sales@aem.ro aem.ro

ALPIQ ENERGY SE PRAGA – BUCHAREST SUBSIDIARY

Address: 43 Nicolae Caramfil Street, 1st District, 014142, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 21 209 32 32 Fax: +40 21 209 32 33 e-mail: info.rou@alpiq.com www.alpiq.ro

ALPIQ ROMENERGIE SRL

Address: Spectrum Business Center, 62A Mihai Bravu Street, B Building, S2:5 Indicative, 2nd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 31 405 22 16 TELverde 0800400007 Fax: +40 31 405 22 16 e-mail: info.energie.rou@alpiq.com www.alpiq.ro

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INDEX ALPIQ ROMINDUSTRIES SRL

Address: 41 Nicolae G. Caramfil Street, 3rd, 4th and 5th floor, 1st District, 014142, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 21 209 32 32 TELverde 0800400006 Fax: +40 21 209 32 33 e-mail: e-info.industries.rou@alpiq.com www.alpiq.ro

ALTIUS FOTOVOLTAIC

Address: 246C Calea Floreasca, Sky Tower, 21st Floor, 014476, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 314 13 74 44, 314 14 14 41 Fax: +40 314 38 25 10 Mobile: +40 744 42 57 95, 744 57 70 10 e-mail: info@altiusfotovoltaic.ro www.altiusfotovoltaic.ro

AMARAD DISTRIBUȚIE SRL

Address: Partizanilor Street, A5 Building, 3-4 apartment, 455300, Simleu Silvaniei, Salaj County, Romania Phone/fax: +40 260 67 93 61 e-mail: contact@amarad-distributie.ro www.amarad-distributie.ro/

AMGAZ

Address: 1 Tamas Erno Street, 540307, Tirgu Mureş, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 76 21 46 Fax: +40 265 76 21 45 e-mail: office@amgaz.ro www.amgaz.ro

AMROMCO ENERGY

Address: 152K Republicii Boulevard, 3rd floor, 100151, Ploiesti, Prahova County, Romania Tel: +40 244 51 23 61 Fax: +40 244 51 23 73 www.amromco.com

ARELCO POWER SRL

Address: 11 Pitarul Hristache Street, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 21 23 17 056 Fax: +40 21 23 17 060 e-mail: office@arelco.ro www.arelco.ro

ARMAX GAZ

Headquarters: 35 A Aurel Vlaicu Street, Medias, 551041, Sibiu County, Romania Phone: +40 269 84 58 64 Fax: +40 269 84 59 56 e-mail: office@armaxgaz.ro www.armaxgaz.ro

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INDEX BIO FUEL ENERGY SRL ZIMNICEA

Address: 38 Portului Road, Zimnicea, Teleorman County, Romania Phone: +40 374 202 301, 374 202 305 Fax: +40 374 202 300 e-mail: office@biofuelenergy.ro www.biofuelenergy.ro

BUCHAREST STOCK EXCHANGE

Address: 34 - 36 Carol I Boulevard, 14th Floor, 2nd District, 020922, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 07 95 00 Fax: +40 213 07 95 19 General information: bvb@bvb.ro / Investor Relation: ir@bvb.ro ATS/AeRO market Fax: +40 213 12 47 22 e-mail: ats@bvb.ro www.bvb.ro

BUTAN GAS ROMANIA

Address: 18 Coralilor Street, 1st District, 013328, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 214 08 73 33, 372 15 73 31 Fax: +40 318 14 99 82, 214 08 73 30 e-mail: comenzi@butangas.ro www.butangas.ro

CABLETEAM SRL

Address: 14 Calea Baratilor Street, 547025, Albesti Commune, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 77 00 30 Fax: +40 365 73 01 05 e-mail: office@cableteam.ro www.cableteam.ro

CABUR ROMANIA

Address: 139 Calea Plevnei Street, B Building, Room 25, 26, 6th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone/fax: +40 213 11 71 40 www.cabur.eu, www.cabur.it

CEZ ROMANIA

Address: 2 B, Ion Ionescu de la Brad Street, 1st floor, 1st District, 013813, Bucharest, Romania Fax: +40 212 692 566 e-mail: office@cez.ro www.cez.ro

CEZ DISTRIBUTIE

Address: 2 Brestei Street, 6th floor, 200581, Craiova, Dolj County, Romania Fax: +40 251 215 004 e-mail: office@cez.ro www.cez.ro

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CEZ VANZARE

Address: 2 Brestei Street, 6th floor, 200581, Craiova, Dolj County, Romania Fax: +40 251 216 002 e-mail: cez_vanzare@cez.ro www.cez.ro

CEZ TRADE ROMANIA SRL

Address: 2 B, Ion Ionescu de la Brad Street, 1st floor, 1st District, 013813, Bucharest, Romania Fax: +40 212 692 566 e-mail: ion.lungu@cez.ro www.cez.ro

OVIDIU DEVELOPMENT SRL

Social Address: 2 B, Ion Ionescu de la Brad Street, 1st floor, 1st District, 013813, Bucharest, Romania Correspondence address: Centrul de Control al Parcului Eolian CEZ, No. 113, Garii Street, Cogealac Parish, Constanta County, 907070 Fax: + 40 248 523 809 e-mail: cezwindfarm@cez.ro www.cez.ro

M.W. TEAM INVEST SRL

Social Address: 2 B, Ion Ionescu de la Brad Street, 1st floor, 1st District, 013813, Bucharest, Romania Correspondence address: Centrul de Control al Parcului Eolian CEZ, No. 113, Garii Street, Cogealac Parish, Constanta County, 907070 Fax: + 40 248 523 809 e-mail: cezwindfarm@cez.ro www.cez.ro

TOMIS TEAM SRL

Social Address: 2 B, Ion Ionescu de la Brad Street, 1st floor, 1st District, 013813, Bucharest, Romania Correspondence address: Centrul de Control al Parcului Eolian CEZ, No. 113, Garii Street, Cogealac Parish, Constanta County, 907070 Fax: + 4 0248 523 809 e-mail: cezwindfarm@cez.ro www.cez.ro

TMK-HYDROENERGY POWER S.R.L.

Address: 4 B Primaverii Street, UHB Grebla, 1st floor, 320012, Resita, Caras-Severin County, Romania Fax: +40 372 526 553 www.cez.ro

COMPANIA NATIONALA A URANIULUI

Address: 68 Dionisie Lupu Street, 1st District, 010458, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 18 52 58, 213 18 52 62, +40 727 731 489 Fax: +40 213 12 91 46 e-mail: bucuresti@cnu.ro www.cnu.ro

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INDEX COLTERM TIMISOARA

Address: 4 Episcop Joseph Lonovici Street, 300092, Timisoara, Timis County Phone: +40 256 43 57 24, 43 46 14 Fax: +40 256 43 16 16 e-mail: office@colterm.ro, marketing@colterm.ro www.colterm.ro

CONFIND

Address: 2 Progresului Street, 105600, Campina, Prahova County Phone: +40 244 33 31 60 Fax: +40 244 37 47 19 e-mail: confind@confind.ro www.confind.ro

CIS GAZ SA

Address: 686 Voinicenilor Street, 547565, Santana de Mures Commune, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 31 30 18 Fax: +40 265 31 30 18 e-mail: office@cisgaz.ro www.cisgaz.com

COMELF SA

Address: 4 Industriei Street, 420063, Bistrita, Bistrita-Nasaud County, Romania Phone: +40 263 23 44 62 Fax: +40 263 23 80 92 e-mail: comelf@comelf.ro www.comelf.ro

COMPLEXUL ENERGETIC HUNEDOARA SA

Social address: 2 Timisoara Street, 332015, Petrosani, Hunedoara County, Romania Cod fiscal : RO 30855230 Phone: +40 254 54 43 12, 254 50 62 05 Fax: +40 254 54 43 13, 254 50 62 36 e-mail: office@cenhd.ro, oana.stoicuta@cenhd.ro www.cenhd.ro

COMPLEXUL ENERGETIC OLTENIA SA

Address: 5 Alexandru Ioan Cuza Street, Targu Jiu, Gorj County, Romania Phone: +40 253 20 54 01, +40 372 81 97 01 Fax: +40 253 22 72 80 email: office@ceoltenia.ro, elena.zamfir@ceoltenia.ro ceoltenia.ro

CONPET SA PLOIESTI

Address: 1-3 Anul 1848 Street, 100559, Ploiesti, Prahova County, Romania Phone: +40 244 40 13 60 Fax: +40 269 51 64 51 e-mail: conpet@conpet.ro www.conpet.ro

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INDEX CYEB SRL

Address: 111 B Calea Turzii Street, 400501, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone: +40 264 44 33 30 Fax: +40 364 11 62 28 e-mail: info@cyeb.ro www.cyeb.ro

DIENERGY ROMANIA SRL

Address: 313 Splaiul Unirii Street, ICPE, MD5 Building, ground floor, 3rd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 723 38 31 36 Mob: +40 749 20 65 44 e-mail: contact@dienergy.ro www.dienergy.ro

DISTRIGAZ VEST

Address: 4-6 1 Decembrie Street, Oradea, Bihor County, Romania Phone: +40 760 67 88 18, +40 259 40 65 07 Fax: +40 259 40 65 08 www.distrigazvest.ro

EATON ELECTRIC SRL

Address: 42-44 Bucuresti-Ploiesti Road, Baneasa Business & Technology Park, B2 Building, 3rd floor, 1st District, 013696, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 61 09 09 Fax: +40 213 61 09 00/01 e-mail: infobucharest@eaton.com www.eaton-electric.ro

ECO2ENERGY CHOICE SRL

Address: 10 Bucuresti Nord Road, Global City Bussiness Park, 023 Building, 5th floor, Office 7, Voluntari, Ilfov County, Romania Phone: +40 37 112 08 38 Fax: +40 37 276 47 68 e-mail: office@eco2energy.ro www.eco2energy.ro

ECOHORNET

Address: 4 italia Street, Bucharest-Pitesti Highway, km 13,2, Ciorogarla Exit, Chiajna, Ilfov County Mobile: +40 745 05 00 50, 740 88 80 85, 742 05 00 55 Fax: +40 213 51 58 64 e-mail: president@ecohornet.ro www.ecohornet.ro

EFT FURNIZARE S.R.L.

Address: 24 Mircea Voda Boulevard, European Business Center, 2nd floor, 030667, 3rd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 21 302 36 23 Fax: +40 21 302 36 24 e-mail: ro-office@eft-group.net www.eft-furnizare.net

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INDEX ELECTRICA SA

Address: 9 Grigore Alexandrescu Street, 010621, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 08 59 99 Fax: +40 212 08 59 98 e-mail: office@electrica.ro Facebook: Electrica SA LinkedIn: Electrica SA www.electrica.ro

ELECTRICOM SA

Address: 246 C Calea Floreasca, SkyTower Office Building, 21 floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 314 13 74 44 Fax: +40 314 38 25 10 e-mail: office@electricom.ro www.electricom.ro

ELECTROALFA

Address: 33 Manolesti Deal Street, 710003, Botosani, Botosani County, Romania Phone: +40 231 53 21 86/87/ 88/89 Fax: +40 231 53 21 85 e-mail: office@electroalfa.ro www.electroalfa.ro

ELECTROCENTRALE SA BUCURESTI

Address: 227 Splaiul Independentei Street, 6th District, 060041, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 75 11 03 Fax: +40 212 75 14 05 e-mail: office@elcen.ro Facebook.com/ElectrocentraleBucuresti www.elcen.ro

ELECTROCENTRALE GRUP SA

Address: 1-3 Lacul Tei Boulevard, District 2, 020371, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 374 71 85 01 Fax: +40 374 71 85 02 e-mail: office@electrocentralegrup.ro www.electrocentralegrup.ro

ELECTROCONSTRUCTIA ELCO GIURGIU

Address: 15 23 August Street, 080432, Giurgiu, Giurgiu County, Romania Phone: +40 246 21 49 15 Fax: +40 246 21 46 95 e-mail: contact@elco-giurgiu.ro www.elco-giurgiu.ro

ELECTROGLOBAL

Address: 47/16 N Taietura Turcului Street, 1st Tetarom Industrial Park, 400221, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone: +40 264 40 62 03 Fax: +40 264 40 62 04 e-mail: info@electroglobal.ro

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INDEX ELECTROGROUP

Headquarters: 217 Calea Turzii Street, 400495, Cluj Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone: +40 264 41 51 20 Fax: +40 264 41 51 21 e-mail: office@electrogrup.ro www.electrogrup.ro

ELECTROMAGNETICA SA

Address: 266-268 Calea Rahovei Street, 5th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 214 04 21 02 Fax: +40 214 04 21 48 e-mail: eugen.scheusan@electromagnetica.ro (General Manager) www.electromagnetica.ro

ELECTROPLAST SA

Address: 14 Subcetate Street, 420132, Bistrita, Bistrita-Nasaud County, Romania Phone: +40 732 16 63 21, 263 2313 78, 263 23 20 32, 263 23 26 69, 263 23 20 51, 372 76 47 00 Fax: +40 263 23 13 78, 23 30 51 office@electroplast.ro www.electroplast.ro

ELECTROPRECIZIA SA

Address: 18 Parcului Street, 505600, Sacele, Brasov County, Romania Phone: +40 268 27 37 75 Fax: +40 268 27 34 85 e-mail: office@electroprecizia.ro electroprecizia.ro

ELECTRO SISTEM

Address: 4B 8 Martie Street, 430406, Baia Mare, Maramures County, Romania Phone: +40 262 21 35 81 Fax: +40 262 21 35 83 e-mail: info@electro-sistem.com electro-sistem.com

ELSACO GROUP

Headquarters: 41A Pacea Street, 710013, Botosani, Botosani County, Romania Phone: +40 231 50 70 60 Fax: +40 231 53 29 05 e-mail: elsaco@elsaco.com www.elsaco.com

E.ON ENERGIE ROMANIA S.A.

Social address: 42 Pandurilor Boulevard, 2nd floor, 540554, Targu Mures, Mures County, Romania e-mail: office.eero@eon-romania.ro www.eon-energie-romania.ro

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INDEX

E.ON DISTRIBUTIE ROMANIA SA

Headquarter: 42 Pandurilor Boulevard, 4th floor, 540554, Targu Mures, Mures Fax: +40 265 26 04 18 e-mail: office.edro@eon-romania.ro www.eon-gaz-distributie.ro

ENEL

Address: 41-43 Ion Mihalache Boulevard, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 372 436 436/004, 0372 436 436 e-mail: contacteem.ro@enel.com www.enel.ro

ENERGOBIT SA

Headquarters: 47/11 Taietura Turcului Street, 1st Tetarom Industrial Park, 400221, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone: +40 264 20 75 00, fax: +40 264 20 75 55 e-mail: ebit@energobit.com www.energobit.com

ENERGOTECH SA

Address: 104E Timisoara Boulevard, 6th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 217 78 68 71, 214 44 95 61, 372 75 05 28 Fax: +40 217 78 42 54, 372 71 26 13 e-mail: office@energotech.ro www.energotech.ro

ENERGY GAS PROVIDER SRL

Address: 43 B, Ghencea Boulevard, Ghencea Business Center, 3rd floor, 6th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 52 19 54 Mobile: +40 731 48 02 35 Fax: +40 212 52 19 50 e-mail: client@energy-gas.ro, alina.boldurean@energy-gas.ro, alina.energygas@gmail.com energy-gas.ro

ENERGY DISTRIBUTION SERVICES

Address: 8 Cristofor Columb Street, 1st District, 010475, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 10 33 76 Fax: +40 212 11 50 04 e-mail: office@energydistribution.ro www.energydistribution.ro

ENERGY HOLDING SRL

Address: 24 Paris Street, 1st District, 011816, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 05 38 38 Fax: +40 212 05 38 88 e-mail: office@energyromania.com www.energyromania.com

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INDEX ENERGY SERV

Address: 5 Andrei Muresanu Street, apt. 3, 1st District, Bucharest – Romania Phone : +40 213 11 83 45 Fax: +40 213 11 83 45 e-mail: office@energy-serv.ro www.energy-serv.ro

ENEX SRL

Address: 47 Tãietura Turcului Street, 1st Tetarom Industrial Park, A Building, ground floor, 400221, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone: +40 264 20 75 00 Fax: +40 264 20 75 55 e-mail: enex@energobit.com www.enexenergy.ro

ENGIE (former GDF SUEZ ENERGY ROMANIA) Address: 4-6 Marasesti Boulevard, 4th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 01 22 61 Fax: +40 213 01 21 51 e-mail: birouldepresa@ro.engie.com engie.ro

ENOL GRUP SA

Address: 35 Vlad Dracu Street, 3rd District, 031195, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 22 43 76/78 Fax: +40 213 22 43 77 e-mail: dispecer@enol.ro www.enol.ro

ENVISAN

Address: 11-13 Poet Andrei Mureşanu Street, 1st District, 011841, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 30 02 01 Fax: +40 248 22 30 62 e-mail: info@envisan.com www.envisan.com

EVA ENERGY

Address: 74 Branduselor Street, 4th floor, 29th Office, Brasov, Brasov County, Romania Phone: +40 021 318 08 10 Fax: +40 372 87 10 78 e-mail: suport@eva-energy.ro www.eva-energy.ro

EXPERT PETROLEUM

Address: DN1, Bucharest-Ploiesti Road, Victoria Business Park, B Building, 3rd floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: + 40 374 20 06 47 Fax: + 40 317 80 10 93, 314 32 62 25 e-mail: info@expertpetroleum.com www.expertpetroleum.com

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INDEX FIDELIS ENERGY SRL

Address: 7 B-7 C Palas Street, United Business Center Building No 3, Building C, 14th floor, Iasi, Iasi County, Romania Phone: +40 232 25 37 76, 232 25 00 88 Fax: +40 232 25 10 18 e-mail: office@fidelis.ro fidelis.ro

GENERAL COM INVEST SRL

Address: 1 Steagului Stret, 310262, Arad, Arad County, Romania Phone: +40 257 25 08 62 Fax: +40 257 21 21 16 Email: office@gci.ro www.gci.ro

GETICA 95 COM SRL

Address: 20 Dorobanti Street, Ramnicul Sarat, Buzau County, Romania Phone: +40 374 03 20 32 Fax: +40 213 21 11 18 e-mail: office@getica95.ro www.getica95.ro

GRUP SERVICII PETROLIERE SA

Address: Constanta Port, Berth 34, 900900, Constanta, Constanta County, Romania Phone: +40 212 80 02 02 Fax: +40 213 08 02 02 e-mail: office@gspoffshore.com www.gspoffshore.com

HIDROCONSTRUCȚIA

Address: 103-105 Calea Dorobantilor Street, 1st District, 010561, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 08 14 00/11 Fax: +40 212 08 14 01/2, 21317 52 03 e-mail: office@hidroconstructia.com www.hidroconstructia.com

HIDROELECTRICA SA

Address: 15-17 Ion Mihalache Boulevard, 1st District, RO-011171, Bucharest, Romania Phone: + 40 213 03 25 78 Fax: + 40 213 03 25 64 e-mail: secretariat.general@hidroelectrica.ro hidroelectrica.ro

HIDRO TARNIȚA SA

Address: 29 Carol Boulevard, 4th floor, 2nd District, 020921, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 13 83 29 Fax: +40 213 13 51 30 e-mail: contact@hidrotarnita.ro www.hidrotarnita.ro

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INDEX ICCO ENERG

Address: 8 Scolii Street, 500059, Brasov, Brasov County Phone: +40 268 40 12 12 Fax +40 268 40 12 40 e-mail: icco@icco.ro www.icco.ro

ICPE SA (Institute for Electrotechnical Research and Power Engineering)

Address: 313 Splaiul Unirii Street, 3rd District, 030138, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 215 89 33 00 Fax: +40 215 89 34 34 e-mail: office@icpe.ro www.icpe.ro

ICPE ACTEL SA

Address: 313 Splaiul Unirii Street, 3rd District, 030138, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 46 86 90 Fax: +40 213 46 72 67 e-mail: office@icpe-actel.ro www.icpe-actel.ro

IPROEB SA

Address: 19 Drumul Cetatii Street, Bistrita, Bistrita-Nasaud County, Romania Phone: +40 263 23 81 64 Fax: +40 263 23 47 01 e-mail: iproeb@iproeb.ro www.iproeb.ro

IPIP (Engineering and Design Institute for Oil Refineries and Petrochemical Plants) Address: 18 Diligentei Street, 100575, Ploiesti, Prahova County, Romania Phone: +40 244 51 15 66, 51 30 98, 54 51 51 Fax: +40 244 51 53 61 e-mail: ipip@ipip.ro www.ipip.ro

ISCE (Enterprise for Energy Studies and Research) Address: 8 Sf. Niceta Street, 2nd District, 023744, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 211 60 34, +40 318 05 91 18/9/20 Fax: +40 211 60 35 e-mail: isce@isce.ro www.isce.ro

ISPE (Institute for Studies and Power Engineering) Address: 1-3 Lacul Tei Boulevard, 2nd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 10 77 25 Fax: +40 212 10 36 20 e-mail: dirgen@ispe.ro www.ispe.ro

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INDEX ISPH (Institute for Studies and Hydropower Engineering)

Address: 293 Calea Vitan Street, 3rd District, 031295, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 14 72 70 Fax: +40 213 12 09 25 e-mail: info@isph.ro www.isph.ro

INSPET SA

Address: 15 Democratiei Street, 105558, Brasov, Brasov County, Romania Phone: +40 244 40 65 00 Fax: +40 244 51 21 67 e-mail: inspet@inspet-ploiesti.ro www.inspetsa.ro

KDF ENERGY ROMANIA

Address: 90 Calea 13 Septembrie Street, Marriott, The Grand Office, 8th floor, 8.10, 050726, Bucharest, Romania CEO - Andreea Vlad Phone: +40 314 38 29 79 Mobile: + 40 744 22 22 43 Fax: +40 314 38 29 78 e-mail: trading@kdfenergy.com www.kdfenergy.com

KONTRASTWEGE SRL

Address: 1 Mihai Eminescu Street, 7th apartament, 530103 Miercurea-Ciuc, Harghita County, Romania Phone/fax: +40 266 24 43 92 Mobile: +40 751 10 82 78 (Sales), +40 744 63 84 67 (Management) e-mail: info@kwg.ro www.kwg.ro

LINDE GAS ROMANIA

Address: 9 Avram Imbroane Street, 300136, Timisoara, Timis County, Romania Phone: +40 256 30 07 00 Fax: +40 256 22 56 08 www.linde-gas.ro

LUXTEN

Address: 76 Parangului, 1st District, 12328, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 216 68 88 19, 372 19 21 82 Fax: +40 216 68 88 23 e-mail: office@luxten.com www.luxten.com

MASTER CHEM OIL SRL BUCUREȘTI

Address: 10 Montreal Square, World Trade Center, Entrance D, 2nd floor, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 02 90 78 Fax: +40 212 24 08 60 e-mail: office@masterchemoil.com www.masterchemoil.com/

187


INDEX MET ROMANIA ENERGY TRADE SRL

Address: 18 Elefterie Street, 3rd floor, 5th District, 050525, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 32 09 46 Fax: +40 212 32 09 47 info.metro@met.com ro.met.com

MOL ROMANIA PETROLEUM PRODUCTS SRL CLUJ-NAPOCA Address: 77 21 Decembrie1989 Boulevard, The Office, C-D Building, 1st floor, Room C.1.1., Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone: +40 264 407600 e-mail: receptie.cluj@molromania.ro www.molromania.ro

MONSSON GROUP

Address: 480 Tomis Boulevard, 900519, Constanta, Constanta County, Romania Phone: +40 241 55 03 53 Fax: +40 241 55 03 23 e-mail: office@monsson.eu www.monsson.eu

MORE GROUP OF COMPANIES

Address: 37 Putul lui Zamfir Street, 4th floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 08 62 71 Fax: +40 213 27 07 43 e-mail:info@more-group.eu www.more-group.eu

OIL TERMINAL SA

Address: 2 Caraiman Street, 900117, Constanta, Constanta County, Romania Phone: +40 241 70 26 00 Fax: +40 241 69 48 33 e-mail: office@oil-terminal.com www.oil-terminal.com

OMNI CABLE SRL

Address: 175 B Principala Street, Ernei Commune, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 24 41 44 Fax: +40 265 24 41 43 e-mail: office@omnicable.ro www.omnicable.ro

OMV PETROM SA

Address: 22 Coralilor Street, Petrom City, Infinity Building, 1st floor, Oval B 1st District, 013329, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: press.office@petrom.com www.petrom.com www.omv.ro

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INDEX OSCAR DOWNSTREAM SRL

Headquarters: 6 Maria Rosetti Street, Rosetti Tower, 1st floor, 2nd District, 020485, Bucharest Phone: +40 213 18 26 22/24 Fax: +40 213 18 26 23 e-mail: office@oscars.ro www.oscars.ro

NATIONAL COMPANY FOR MINE CLOSING SA

Address: 3 Mihai Viteazu Street, Petrosani, Hunedoara County, Romania Phone: +40 374 17 26 00 Fax: +40 374 17 26 01 e-mail: office@snimvj.ro www.snimvj.ro

NECOM SRL

Address: 165 Nicolina Road, 700714, Iasi, Iasi County, Romania Phone: +40 232 41 21 11 Fax: +40 232 41 21 12 e-mail: necom@necom.ro www.necom.ro

NEPTUN SA

Address: 57-63 Bobalna Street, 105600, Campina, Prahova County, Romania Phone: +40 244 33 56 51/52 Fax: +40 244 33 66 41, 244 27 03 38 e-mail: office@neptun-gears.ro www.neptun-gears.ro

NIS PETROL SRL

Address: 246 C Calea Floreasca, 22nd floor, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 372 26 95 00 www.gazprom-petrol.ro

NORD GAZ SRL – GRUPPO DONDI

Address: 4-6, 1 Mai Street, 725400, Radauti, Suceava County, Romania Phone: +40 230 20 62 08 Fax: +40 230 20 62 07 e-mail: office@nordgaz.ro

NUCLEARELECTRICA SA (NATIONAL COMPANY)

Address: 65 Polona Street, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone.: +40 212 03 82 00 Fax: +40 212 11 94 00 e-mail: office@nuclearelectrica.ro www.nuclearelectrica.ro

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INDEX PAULOWNIA GREENE INTERNATIONAL

Address: 24 Croitorilor Street, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone/fax: +40 264 41 79 92 Mobile: +40 760 80 70 / 127 e-mail: office@paulowniagreene.ro www.paulowniagreene.ro

PETPROD SRL

Address: 14 G.D. Mirea Street, ap 1, 1st District, 011396, Bucharest, Romania Phone/Fax: +40 212 22 75 75, 311 00 19 69, 212 23 00 28 e-mail: office@petprod.ro www.petprod.ro

PETROSTAR SA

Address: 37 Bucharest Boulevard, 100520, Ploiesti, Prahova County, Romania Phone: +40 244 57 59 63, 51 37 77 Fax: +40 244 57 54 12 e-mail: petrostar@petrostar.ro www.petrostar.ro

PETROTEL LUKOIL SA PLOIEȘTI

Address: 28-36 Nordului Road, 1st District, 014104, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 27 21 06 Fax: +40 212 32 82 64 e-mail: office@romania.lukoil.com www.lukoil.ro

PROSPECTIUNI SA

Address: 1 Caransebes Street, 012271, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 214 04 28 00 Fax: +40 213 19 66 56 e-mail: office@prospectiuni.ro www.prospectiuni.ro

POLIMED ENERGY TRADING SRL

Address: 3-5 Drumul Cetatii Street, Bistrita, Bistrita-Nasaud County, Romania Phone: +40 741 31 81 81 Fax: +40 263 23 46 63 e-mail office@polimedenergy.ro www.polimedenergy.ro

RATEN

Address: 8 Energeticienilor Boulevard, 3rd District, 032092, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 248 20 70 30/031 Fax: +40 248 20 70 32 e-mail: office@raten.ro www.raten.ro

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INDEX RCB ELECTRO 97 SA

Address: 17 Sigmirului Street, 420158, Bistrita, Bistrita-Nasaud Phone: +40 263 23 61 53, 23 84 48 Fax: +40 263 23 70 71 e-mail: office@rcbelectro.ro www.rcbelectro.ro

RENOVATIO TRADING SRL

Address: 2 AP Cehov Street, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 18 20 10 Fax: +40 213 18 20 13 e-mail: office@renovatiotrading.ro www.renovatiotrading.ro

REPCON SA

Address: 14 Atelierelor Street, 410542, Oradea, Bihor County, Romania Fax: +40 259 42 33 08 www.repcon.ro

REPOWER FURNIZARE ROMANIA SRL

Address: 19-21 Primaverii Boulevard, S1, 011972, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 21 335 09 35 Fax: +40 21 335 09 34 www.repower.com

RESTART ENERGY ONE

Address: 6 Mocioni Alexandru Square, 300199, Timisoara, Timis County, Romania Phone: +40 356 41 41 75 Fax: +40 356 41 41 73 e-mail: office@restartenergy.ro www.restartenergy.ro

ROMCAB SA

Address: 35 Voinicenilor Street, 540252, Tirgu Mures, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 31 25 40, 31 25 51 e-mail: romcab@romcab.ro www.romcab.ro

ROMELECTRO SA

Address: 1-3 Lacul Tei Boulevard, 2nd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 00 43 00/05/06/07 Fax: +40 212 00 43 75 e-mail: office@romelectro.ro www.romelectro.ro

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INDEX ROMENERGO

Address: 175 Calea Floreasca Street, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 33 07 71/2, 314 38 18 71/3 Fax: +40 212 33 08 55/6 e-mail: office@romenergo.ro www.romenergo.ro

ROMGAZ SA (NATIONAL COMPANY OF GAS)

Address: 4 C.I. Motas Square, 551130, Medias, Sibiu County, Romania Phone: +40 269 20 10 20 Fax: +40 269 84 69 01 e-mail: secretariat@romgaz.ro www.romgaz.ro

ROMNED

Address: 67-77 Biharia Street, C Building, ground floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 314 25 38 00 Fax: +40 314 25 39 00 e-mail: info@romned.ro www.romned.ro

PETROMIDIA REFINERY (ROMPETROL RAFINARE)

Address: 215 Navodari Boulevard, Administrative Building, Navodari, Constanta County, Romania Phone: +40 241 50 60 00 Fax: +40 241 50 69 30 e-mail: office.rafinare@rompetrol.com www.rompetrol-rafinare.ro

VEGA REFINERY

Address: 146 Valeni Street, 100132, Ploiesti, Prahova County, Romania Phone: +40 244 40 61 10/3 Fax: +40 244 51 44 69 e-mail: office.vega@rompetrol.com www.rafinarie.ro

ROMPETROL PETROCHEMICALS

Address: 215 Navodari Boulevard, Administrative Building, Navodari, Constanta County, Romania Phone: +40 241 50 68 68 Fax: +40 241 50 69 09 e-mail: office.petrochemicals@rompetrol.com www.petrochemicals.ro

ECOMASTER

Address: 3-5 Presei Libere Square, City Gate Northern Tower, 4th floor, 6-9 rooms, 010099, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 05 25 00 Fax: +40 213 14 04 85 e-mail: office@eco-master.com www.eco-master.com

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INDEX ROMINSERV

Address: 3-5 Presei Libere Square, City Gate Northern Tower, 3rd floor, 010096, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 72 36 60 Fax: +40 213 14 08 97 e-mail: office@rominserv.com www.rominserv.com

ROMPETROL DOWNSTREAM

Address: 3-5 Presei Libere Square, City Gate Northern Tower, 2nd floor, 011028, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 06 75 00 Fax: +40 212 06 75 80 e-mail: office.downstream@rompetrol.com www.downstream.ro

ROMPETROL KMG

Address: 3-5 Presei Libere Square, City Gate Northern Tower, 6th floor, 010099, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 03 08 00 Fax: +40 213 12 24 90 e-mail: office@rompetrol.com www.rompetrol.com

ROMPETROL GAS

Address: 3-5 Presei Libere Square, City Gate Northern Tower, 1st floor, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 00 91 00 Fax: +40 212 00 91 50 e-mail: office.rompetrolgas@rompetrol.com

ROMINSERV VALVES IAIFO

Address: 58 Mihai Viteazul Boulevard, 450090, Zalau, Salaj County, Romania Phone: + 40 260 60 73 00 Fax:+ 40 260 66 15 94 www.rominservvalves.com

ROMPETROL WELL SERVICES

Address: 2 Clopotei Street, Ploiesti, Prahova County, Romania Tel: +40 244 54 43 21/54 42 65/54 41 01 Fax: +40 244 52 29 13 e-mail: office.rws@rompetrol.com www.petros.ro

ROMPETROL QUALITY CONTROL

Address: 226 County Road, km 23, 905700, Navodari - Constanta Tel: +40 241 50 67 00 /72 Fax:+40 241 50 69 16 www.rqc.ro

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INDEX PALPLAST

Address: 26 Dulgherilor Street, 550104, Sibiu, Sibiu County, Romania Tel: +40 269 22 32 73 / +40 269 23 14 29 Fax: +40 269 21 88 64 e-mail: office@palplast.ro www.palplast.ro

FILL&GO PERSONAL

Address: 3-5 Presei Libere Square, City Gate Northern Tower, 2nd floor, 011028, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: infoline@rompetrol.com www.fillandgo.ro

RUXPRO

Address: 58 Ferdinand I Boulevard, Stairs A, ap 2, 2nd District, 021393, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 52 09 67 Fax: +40 212 52 09 68 e-mail: office@ruxpro.ro, proiectare@ruxpro.ro www.ruxpro.ro

SEA COMPLET

Address: 19 A Aurel Filimon Street, Tirgu Mures, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 20 04 00 Secretariat: +40 217 94 78 75/6 Fax: +40 265 23 36 57 e-mail: office@seacomplet.ro www.seacomplet.ro

SIV ELECTRO

Address: 40 S Theodor Pallady Boulevard, 3rd District, 032266, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 742 14 91 00, 723 28 94 72 e-mail: office@sivelectro.ro www.sivelectro.ro

SOCAR PETROLEUM SA BUCUREȘTI

Address: 616 Iuliu Maniu Boulevard, B Building, 4th floor, 6th District, Bucharest, Romania Tel: +40 214 11 99 95 Fax: +40 214 10 07 47 e-mail: office@socar.ro, secretariat@socar.ro www.socar.ro

STILO EVORA

Adress: 5 Calea Republicii Street, Marghita, Bihor County, Romania Phone: +40 259 36 20 93 / 744 81 99 39 e-mail: office@stiloevora.ro www.stiloevora.ro

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INDEX TIAB

Address: 17 Pictor Verona Street, 010312, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 02 12 30 Fax: +40 213 02 12 31 e-mail: office@tiab.ro www.tiab.ro

TINMAR ENERGY & TINMAR IND

Address: 246 C Calea Floreasca Street, Sky Tower, 17th floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 18 07 72 Fax: +40 213 18 07 71 e-mail: office@tinmar-energy.ro www.tinmar.ro

TRANSELECTRICA SA

Address: 2-4 Olteni Street, 3rd District, 030786, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 03 56 11 Fax: +40 213 03 56 10 e-mail: office@transelectrica.ro www.transelectrica.ro

TRANSENERGO COM SA

Address: 90 Calea 13 Septembrie Street, 2nd floor, ap. 2.01, 5th District, 050726, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 214 03 42 02 Fax: +40 214 03 42 01 e-mail: office@transenergo.ro transenergo.ro

TRANSFORMER ENERGY SUPPLY SRL

Address: DN1, km 174+507, B Building, 1st floor, Ghimbav, Brasov County, Romania Phone: +40 730 55 77 11 Fax: +40 268 40 88 78 http://www.tesenergie.ro/

TRANSGAZ SA (NATIONAL COMPANY OF GAS TRANSPORTATION)

Address: 1 CI Motas Square, Medias, Sibiu County, Romania Phone: +40 269 80 33 33 Fax: +40 269 83 90 29 e-mail: cabinet@transgaz.ro www.transgaz.ro

ÈšIRIAC ENERGY

Address: 24-26 Nordului Road, 014104, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 214 31 21 15, 374 10 41 15 Fax: +40 212 32 63 86 e-mail: office@tiriacenergy.ro www.tiriacenergy.ro

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INDEX UGM ENERGY TRADING SRL

Address: 97 Pipera – Tunari Road, 077190, Voluntari, Ilfov County, Romania Phone: +40 312 24 20 00 Fax: +40 312 24 20 01 e-mail: office@ugmenergy.ro www.ugmenergy.ro

UNICOM HOLDING

Address: 1-IA Pipera Boulevard, 5th floor, 077190, Voluntari, Ilfov County, Romania Phone: +40 21 232 99 44, 740 04 13 20 e-mail: office@unicom-group.ro unicom-group.ro

UNICOM OIL TERMINAL

Address: 1-IA Pipera Boulevard, 5th floor, 077190, Voluntari, Ilfov County, Romania Phone: +40 236 44 83 45/61 e-mail: oilterminal.galati@unicom-group.ro unicom-group.ro/oilterminal

ZETA PETROLEUM

Address: 4-6 Ion Bogdan Street, 5th floor, 010539, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 (0)21 319 2550 Fax: +40 (0)21 310 9077 e-mail: info@zetapetroleum.com www.zetapetroleum.com

WEIDMÜLLER INTERFACE GMBH & CO KG

Address: 1 Ionescu Crum Street, Braşov Business Park, 1st Tower, 1st floor, 500446, Brasov, Brasov County, Romania Phone: +40 268 44 62 22 Fax: +40 268 44 62 24 e-mail: office_see@weidmueller.com www.weidmueller.com

WIEE ROMANIA

Address: 79-81 Popa Savu Street, Monolit Building, 5th floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 23 50 72/76/78 Mobile: +40 730 09 73 99 Fax: +40 212 23 50 74 e-mail: office@wiee.ro www.wiee.ro

WIROM GAS SA

Address: 77 Popa Savu Street, 011432, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 22 15 64 Fax: +40 212 22 1567 www.wirom.ro

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INDEX UNIVERSITIES/INSTITUTES FOR RESEARCH

INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC FORECASTING – ROMANIAN ACADEMY

Address: 13 Calea 13 Septembrie Street, Romanian Academy House, 5th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 18 81 48 e-mail: ipe@ipe.ro www.ipe.ro

INSTITUTE FOR NANOTECHNOLOGIES AND ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES

Address: 124 Mamaia Avenue, 9000527, Constanta, Constanta County, Romania Phone/Fax: +40 241 54 53 88 e-mail: insae@univ-ovidius.ro www.univ-ovidius.ro/insae

OIL & GAS UNIVERSITY PLOIESTI

Address: 39 Bucuresti Boulevard, 100680, Ploiesti, Prahova County, Romania Phone: +40 244 57 31 71, 57 56 00, 57 34 33, 57 53 02, 57 55 55, 57 55 68 Fax: +40 244 57 58 47 www.upg-ploiesti.ro

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH – DEVELOPMENT ICEMENERG

Address: 8 Energeticienilor Boulevard, 032092, 3rd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 46 52 41 Fax: +40 213 46 53 10 e-mail: icemenerg@icemenerg.ro www.icemenerg.ro

PETRU MAIOR UNIVERSITY TIRGU MURES

Address: 1 Nicolae Iorga Street, 540088, Tirgu Mures, Mures County, Romania Phone: +40 265 26 22 75 Fax: +40 265 26 22 75 e-mail: rectorat08@upm.ro www.upm.ro

POLITEHNICA UNIVERSITY BUCHAREST

Address: 313 Splaiul Independentei, 6th District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 214 02 97 22 Fax: +40 213 10 77 55 e-mail: cabinet.rector@upb.ro www.upb.ro

POLITEHNICA UNIVERSITY TIMISOARA

Address: 2 Victoriei Square, 300006 Timisoara, Timis County, Romania Phone: +40 256 40 30 00 Fax: +40 256 40 30 21 e-mail: rector@upt.ro www.upt.ro

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INDEX RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE OF THE TRANSILVANIA UNIVERSITY OF BRASOV Address: 10 Institutului Street, Brasov, Brasov County, Romania Phone: +40 372 72 96 98 e-mail: visaion@unitbv.ro www.unitbv.ro

ROMANIAN TECHNICAL SCIENCE ACADEMY Address: 26 Dacia Boulevard, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 19 49 43 e-mail: contact@astr.ro www.astr.ro

UNIVERSITY OF PETROSANI

Address: 20 Universitatii, 332006, Petrosani, Hunedoara County, Romania Phone: +40 254 54 29 94 Fax: +40 254 54 34 91 www.upet.ro

UNIVERSITY OF TECHNICS CLUJ-NAPOCA

Address: 28 Memorandumului, 400114, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, Romania Phone: +40 264 40 12 00 Fax. +40 264 59 20 55 www.utcluj.ro ORGANISATIONS/PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

ABIEC - Major Industrial Energy Consumers Association Address: 64 Splaiul Unirii Street, 40036, Bucharest, Romania

AFEER – Electric Energy Providers Association of Romania Address: 7-9 Tudor Stefan Street, 1st floor, ap. 2, 1st District, 01165, Bucuresti, Romania Phone: +40 212 30 60 31 Fax: +40 212 30 60 32 e-mail: office@afeer.ro www.afeer.ro

AIIR – Romanian Association of System Engineers

Address: 66 Pache Protopopescu Boulevard, 2nd District, 021414, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 52 42 95 Fax: +40 212 52 42 95 e-mail: office@aiiro.ro www.aiiro.ro 198

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INDEX

APEER - Wind Energy Producers Association of Romania

Address: 1 A, Rusu de Sus, 427206, Bistrita-Nasaud County, Romania Phone/Fax: +40 263 35 02 98/35 00 24 e-mail: info@apeer.ro www.apeer.ro

ARCU - Romanian Association of Utilities Consumers

Address: 32 Schelelor Street, Campina, Prahova County, Romania Phone: +40 748 17 21 70 Fax: +40 374 09 27 53 e-mail: office@arcu.ro, electricitate@arcu.ro, gaze@arcu.ro, apa@arcu.ro www.arcu.ro

AREL – Romanian Association of Electricians

Address: 16 Padescu Street, Unit 15, A Stairs, 7th floor, ap. 29, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: office@arel.ro www.arel.ro

ARmHE – Romanian Association for Small Hydropower Address: 22 Drumul Fermei Street, Popesti-Leordeni, Ilfov County, Romania e-mail: office@rosha.ro www.asociatiamhc.ro

ARPEE – Romanian Association for Promoting Energy Efficiency

Address: 241 A Barbu Vacarescu Street, 3rd & 4th floor, 2nd District, 020276, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 213 22 86 37/ int 301 Fax: +40 213 22 84 95 e-mail: office@arpee.org.ro www.arpee.org.ro

ATE3 – Territorial Association for Energy and Energy Efficiency

Address: 18 Libertatii Boulevard, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 314 26 81 95 e-mail: office@ate3.ro www.ate3.ro

COGEN – COGEN Professional Association of Romania

Address: 1-3 Lacul Tei Boulevard, 2nd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 216 59 68 36 Fax: +40 216 59 66 09 e-mail: office@cogen.ro www.cogen.ro

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INDEX EMPLOYERS’ FEDERATION OF ASSOCIATIONS OF UTILITIES COMPANIES FOR ENERGY

Address: 54 B Soseaua Nordului, ground floor, ap. 2, 1st District, 014104, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 30 32 65, 230 00 50, 230 05 01, 230 05 11 Fax:: +40 212 30 06 89 e-mail: office@acue.ro, silvia.vlasceanu@acue.ro www.acue.ro

ESCOROM – ESCO Enterprise Association of România Address: 222 Calea Grivitei Street, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 721 79 77 25 e-mail: info@escorom.ro www.escorom.ro

FPPG – Oil and Gas Employers’ Federation

Address: 44 Alexandru Ioan Cuza Boulevard, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 52 00 66 Fax: +40 212 52 00 66 e-mail: office@fppetrolgaze.ro fppetrolgaze.ro

PATRES – Employers Organization of Renewable Energy Producers of Romania

Address: 6 Maria Rosetti Street, Rosetti Tower, 2nd floor, 2nd District, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 725 94 80 90, 214 04 32 29 e-mail: office@patres.org patres.org

PPR - Petroleum Employers’ Association of Romania

Address: 19-21 Mihai Eminescu Street, 5th floor, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: office@ppr.ro www.ppr.ro

PRO AGRO NATIONAL FEDERATION

Address: 155 Calea Victoriei Street, Victoria Business Center, Section 8, Unit D1, 1st floor, 1st District, 010073, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 722 15 69 61 e-mail: secretariat@cnproagro.ro, florentin.bercu@cnproagro.ro www.cnproagro.ro

RBSTA- Romanian Black Sea Titleholders Association

Address: Calea Floreasca, nr. 169 A, Corp A, Etaj 4, Birou 2099, Sector 1, Bucuresti, Romania Phone: (+4)031 8602357 Fax: (+4)031 8602350 Email: office@rbsta.ro rbsta.ro

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INDEX ROMATOM - Romanian Atomic Forum Association

Address: 5-7 Vasile Lascar Street, 1st floor, room 33, 2nd District, 020491, Bucharest, Romania Correspondence Adress: 65 Polona Street, 1st District, Bucharest Phone: +40 726 44 47 59 (president Ion Rotaru) e-mail: nelu.rotaru@elcomex.ro (president Ion Rotaru) romatom.org.ro

ROMANIAN ASSOCIATION OF BIOMASS AND BIOGAS

Headquarters: 37 Putul lui Zamfir Street, 4th Floor, 011682, Bucharest, Romania www.arbio.ro

ROMANIAN CENTRE OF ENERGY

Address: 6 Sofia Street, 1st floor, 1st District, 011838, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 217 95 30 20, 723 73 51 40 Fax: +40 217 95 30 20 e-mail: office@crenerg.org www.crenerg.org

ROMANIAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE OF WORLD ENERGY COUNCIL

Address: 1-3 Lacul Tei Boulevard, 2nd District, 020371, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 11 41 55/56 Fax: +40 212 11 41 57 e-mail: ghbalan@cnr-cme.ro www.cnr-cme.ro

ROPEPCA – Romanian Association of Oil Exploration and Explotation Companies

Address: 13 Tudor Stefan Street, 2nd floor, 1st District, 011655, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 30 08 81 Fax: +40 212 30 08 82 e-mail: office@ropepca.ro www.ropepca.ro

RPIA - Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association

Address: 58-60 Gheorghe Polizu Street, Bucharest Corporate Center (BCC), 13th floor, 1st District, RO – 011062, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: office@rpia.ro LinkedIn: RPIABucharest Twitter: RPIABucharest www.rpia.ro

RWEA - Romanian Wind Energy Association

Address: 75-77 Buzesti Street, 7th floor, office 34, 1st District, Bucharest, Romania e-mail: office@rwea.ro www.rwea.ro

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INDEX

CLUSTERO – Clusters Association of Romania

Address: Ion Ionescu de la Brad Boulevard, INMA ITA Building, room 9, RO-013813, Bucharest, Romania Phone/Fax: +40 212 69 32 97 www.clustero.eu

GREEN ENERGY ROMANIAN INNOVATIVE BIOMASS CLUSTER Address: 4 Presei Street, 520064, Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania Phone: +40 367 62 01 41, +40 751 09 09 44 e-mail: office@greenenergycluster.ro www.greenenergy.org.ro, www.greenenergycluster.ro

ROSENC – Romanian Suistanable Energy Cluster

Address: 9 Republicii Boulevard, 300159, Timisoara, Timis County, Romania Mobile: +40 745 055 558 (CEO Vlad Stanciu) e-mail: pr@rosenc.ro, contact@rosenc.ro rosenc.ro

MUŞAT & ASOCIAŢII’S

Address: 43 Aviatorilor Boulevard, 1st District, 011853, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 02 59 01 Fax: +40 212 23 04 95 e-mail: musat@musat.ro www.musat.ro

NNDKP – NESTOR NESTOR DICULESCU KINGSTON PETERSON Address: 1A Bucuresti-Ploiesti National Road, Bucharest Business Park, Entrance A, 4th Floor, 1st District, 013681, Bucharest, Romania Phone: +40 212 01 12 00, 312 25 33 00 Fax: +40 212 01 12 10, 312 25 33 10 e-mail: office@nndkp.ro

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