Bucharest's thermal energy distributor RADET is the second largest central heating system in the world after the one in Moscow, said yesterday Gheorghe Piperea, founding partner of Piperea si Asociații, the judicial administrator of RADET, reports local Agerpres.

RADET supplies heat to over 563,000 apartments, 8,500 apartment blocks, and more than 1.2 million people, the lawyer said.

Piperea explained that RADET, similar to other public companies, is like a bottomless bag of money. No matter how much money you pour in, it doesn’t get you anywhere unless you stitch it up. He added that the Bucharest City Hall pays 15% of its budget every year for the heating subsidy.

The City Hall wants to attract EUR 200 million from the European Union to restore a part of the heating system, Piperea said. However, it takes more money to fully refurbish RADET’s infrastructure.

He also said that RADET will merge with the energy producer Electrocentrale Bucuresti (Elcen), which provides the heat and hot water distributed in Bucharest. The shares of the Energy Ministry in the new company will be transferred to the Bucharest City Hall.

In October 2016, the court approved the insolvency request of ELCEN. RADET also filed for insolvency in September last year. RADET had large debts to ELCEN, which couldn’t pay its suppliers, the most important of which was gas producer Romgaz, also controlled by the state.

editor@romania-insider.com