Delgaz Grid, part of the E.ON group in Romania, plans to raise 700 million euros from European funds in the coming years, to which will be added approximately 1.5 billion euros from its own sources, to finance a large investment program for modernization, expansion , automation and digitization of electricity and natural gas networks.

For this year, the company has planned a record investment plan from its own sources and European funds of more than 185 million euros (920 million lei), which is 36% more than last year. This investment is the largest in the last 18 years since entering the Romanian market, bringing the total value of the network investment to approximately EUR 1.6 billion.

At the same time, at the cost of significant efforts, the company fulfilled its obligations and made investments from its own sources amounting to about 265 million euros (approximately 1.3 billion lei) in 2021-2022.

Distribution networks, both natural gas and electricity, need billions of euros of investment by 2030 to bring them up to efficiency and compliance with the Green Deal and 55 standards.

Renewable energy sources are important. It is the cheapest and cleanest form of energy available. But their use depends on a network capable of receiving the generated energy and providing the quality parameters required by industry and domestic consumers.

As all these new sources of renewable energy have to be connected to the grids, there is a need to strengthen them, given the exponential growth in the number of those interested in becoming consumers or developing generating capacity. For example, from only 67 prosumers connected to Delgaz Grid at the end of 2020, we reached 5,500 in just two years. And estimates show that by the end of this year we will have at least 10,000 connected prosumers. But without investments in power grids, consumers will not have cheap and high-quality energy!

Investment priorities are also aimed at replacing the old networks of the 70s, as well as the infrastructure of the 90s, which, unfortunately, was not always built of the best quality. At the same time, Delgaz Grid will have to invest even more in cybersecurity solutions, technology, IT, hydrogen projects, as well as network expansion and connecting new consumers.

Therefore, it is very important to understand that distribution networks are the basis for all these developments and developments. And distribution tariffs are a key element for stimulating investments, which, in addition to direct benefits for consumers, have a multiplier effect in the country’s economy.

In this context, the return to normal life and the correct and timely application of the current legislation, which sets tariffs for the activities of the distribution of natural gas and electricity, is vital.

About Delgaz Grid

Delgaz Grid, a distribution company of the German group E.ON, operates a natural gas network of 25,000 km in 20 counties in the north and west of Romania (Cluj, Bistrica Neseud, Maramures, Satu Mare, Salai, Timis, Arad, Bihor, Caraş Severin , Hunedoara, Mures, Sibiu, Alba, Harghita, Iași, Botosani, Vaslui, Suceava, Niamc and Bacău) and an electricity network of more than 81,000 km in six counties of Moldova: Bacău, Botosani, Iasi, Niamc, Suceava and Vaslui. Since entering the local market in 2005, E.ON has invested €2.1 billion, mainly in the modernization of gas and electricity networks, and remitted €3 billion in taxes and fees to the state.

​The article is supported by ​Delgaz Grid