Romania’s Rețele Electrice companies secure €38.4m from modernisation fund

Romanian Rețele Electrice companies and Romania’s Ministry of Energy have signed financing of 191 million lei (€38.4 million; $41.9 million) from the European Union’s Mondernisation Fund for electricity distribution infrastructure modernisation.

The modernisation financing will be distributed across the DSOs Rețele Electrice Muntenia, Rețele Electrice Banat and Rețele Electrice Dobrogea – all owned by Greek electric utility PPC Group – for three investment projects with a total value of over 265 million lei (€53.25 million; $58.1 million) for projects in the counties Ilfov, Calarasi and Arad.

As part of the Rețele Electrice projects, modernisation efforts will be carried out for more than 90 transformer substations, 126km of medium voltage network and 170km of low voltage cables and 5,000 connections will be restored.

By DSO, the funds will be disbursed as follows:

• Rețele Electrice Muntenia will implement a project targeting the town of Mogoșoaia and, partially, Chitila, Ilfov

The total value of the project is 61.4 million lei (€12.3 million; $13.5 million), of which the amount insured from the Modernisation Fund is 48.3 million lei (€9.7 million; $10.6 million).

A total of 58 transformer stations will be targeted, of which 25 are existing and 33 are to be installed. The medium voltage network will be modernised and extended over a length of over 80km, of which 57km of cables will be replaced and 22.6km newly installed. The low voltage network will also be extended by almost 6km.

• Rețele Electrice Dobrogea will carry out the modernisation in Călărași county

The DSO’s project will modernise the overhead power line (LEA) of 20kV in the Perișoru commune area, with a value of 81.3 million lei (€16.3 million; $17.8 million), of which the maximum amount from the Modernisation Fund is 57 million lei (€11.5 million; $12.5 million).

The works will consist of the modernisation of medium and low voltage networks over a total distance of approximately 85km.

This will be done by replacing medium and low voltage cables and conductors, the modernisation of 11 transformer stations and the installation of nine new stations, the introduction of network elements into the remote control system and the restoration of more than 2,500 branches.

• Rețele Electrice Banat will implement a project in the locality of Nădlac, Arad county

The project consists of moving medium voltage overhead lines underground over a distance of 13.5km, dismantling 18 overhead transformer stations and converting them into concrete enclosures, moving low voltage overhead lines underground, replacing conductors with insulated ones across 155km and replacing more than 2,700 connections.

The total value of the project amounts to more than 122.5 million lei (€24.6 million; $26.9 million), of which the maximum amount secured from the Modernisation Fund is 85.9 million lei (€17.3 million; $18.8 million).

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Commenting in a release was Mihai Pește, general manager of Rețele Electrice companies: “The three contracts signed today, with a total value of almost 265 million lei, are added to the other 12 already signed in the last year, through which we secured at least one large-scale project in each among the counties where we carry out our activity.

“We focus equally on work in rural and small urban areas where we run part of the medium voltage networks underground to increase their resilience, protecting them from extreme weather conditions and we do the same with part of the substations of transformation that we pass from the pole into concrete tires or we modernise the existing ones.

“We also target localities in the peri-urban area of Bucharest, with an accelerated degree of development, for which there is a need to resize the structure of the network elements. With each new project we move forward to increase the resilience of the distribution network for the energy transition and demonstrate our commitment to our customers.”

The Rețele Electrice companies operate networks with a total length of over 134,000km in three important areas of the country: South Muntenia (including Bucharest), Banat and Dobrogea, covering a third of the local distribution market.

The companies are also developing an investment programme to improve quality services, safety and performance of networks and local implementation of environmental standards of the PPC group.

The electrical networks operated by the three companies Rețele Electrice count 288 transformer stations and over 25,000 transformer stations.

The announcement is the latest from the Rețele Electrice companies of financing secured through the modernisation fund, following contracts announced earlier this year in February for distribution upgrades.

It also follows a major disbursement from the EU’s Modernisation fund in late June of €2.967 billion ($3.182 billion) across 10 EU Member States, with Romania securing €1.095 billion ($1.175 billion).