Romania's energy minister Sebastian Burduja, attending an energy conference on April 3, warned on the need to boost the country's power storage capacity and mentioned in this regard the efforts to find investors for the Tarnita-Lapustesti pumped hydropower plant as well as attempts to have a EUR 500 million battery power storage project financed from the Modernisation Fund.

He mentioned increasingly frequent situations when the spot electricity market turns negative amid high production of solar and wind production capacities. 

"We have prepared a scheme for storage through the Modernisation Fund, with a generous amount of EUR 500 million [budget], we hope that this scheme will be approved in the future Investment Committee of the Modernisation Fund this fall," said Burduja, quoted by Economica.net.

He also mentioned that those who already have capacities installed and want to attach storage to them can also apply to this scheme. 

Also on the storage side, the minister showed that the current financing scheme for investments in renewables through the National Resilience Scheme (PNRR) favours those who also install batteries. He recommended to the Ministry of the Environment that the next editions of the program for subsidizing installations for natural persons - Casa Green Photovoltaics – provide for the obligation to install batteries.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)