Romania's coal and power complex CE Oltenia, which the European Commission evaluates for a EUR 260 million state aid for its decarbonization plan, signed during March 23-26 several big contracts on the wholesale market under which it sold significant amounts of energy mainly to private electricity supplier Tinmar, Economica.net reported.

Overall, the contracts sum up to roughly 4TWh to be delivered during 2022-2025 for a total price of over EUR 200 mln.

In the week before, the company announced that it reached an agreement with aluminum producer Alro, controlled by Russian group Vimetco, for supplying it with electricity after 2026 - when it expects to operate new, gas-fired power capacities. No financial details were provided, but Alro is Romania's biggest electricity consumer with a share of some 7% in total national consumption.

CE Oltenia visibly seeks to demonstrate the viability of its restructuring strategy, currently under review by the European Commission. The EC's preliminary conclusion was that the Romanian group's strategy stands little chance to align with the state aid regulations - mainly because of the lack of support from other stakeholders (private shareholders, creditors, banks).

The Competition Council's head announced informally that the Romanian state would help CE Oltenia overcome the end-April deadline for purchasing some EUR 50 mln worth of CO2 certificates - because the EC's evaluation of the group's restructuring program will not be ready by then.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Complexul Energetic Oltenia)