Romania Lags in Energy Storage; Bulgaria Offers a Model for Streamlined Procedures

Romania requires enhanced energy storage capabilities, with a call to streamline authorization processes to spur private investment in the sector, stated Cristian Bușoi, State Secretary at the Ministry of Energy.

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We would have benefited from battery-type storage capacities, gas production capacities.

Bușoi pointed to Bulgaria as a model, having notably reduced bureaucratic red tape and authorization procedures for storage projects. This comparison comes as Romania faces increasingly challenging climatic conditions, marked by extended summer droughts, high temperatures, and harsh winter frosts. He also highlighted potential operational issues for the Cernavodă reactors 3 and 4, slated for completion around 2033, due to fluctuating Danube river flow.

Reflecting on past development strategies, Bușoi noted that Romania prioritized expanding production capacity, including through EU-funded projects, while neglecting storage development. He suggested that battery storage and gas-fired power generation could have better equipped Romania to handle system variations. "We would have benefited from battery-type storage capacities, gas production capacities," Bușoi stated.

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Perhaps we should position ourselves somewhere in the middle to develop more storage capacities.

To strike a balance between system security and the need for rapid storage capacity development, Bușoi proposed a middle ground. "Perhaps we should position ourselves somewhere in the middle to develop more storage capacities," he said. The urgency is amplified by the fact that battery projects are primarily attractive to private investors, who require a predictable authorization framework and procedures that ensure investment recovery.

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Bulgaria has minimized the bureaucratic and regulatory and authorization part. Many compatibility tests with the system were no longer performed, and they received final authorization more easily.