Romanian government accepting proposals for renewables auction

The Romanian Ministry of Energy has launched a call to seek expressions of interest from renewable energy developers to participate in upcoming auctions for clean power. It said that interested developers have until Dec. 30 to express interest.

The auction scheme will be configured as a contract-for-difference (CfD) scheme. The authorities will award 15-year power purchase agreements to the selected developers.

According to Energynomics, the Romanian authorities will hold the first auction before the end of June, with up to 750 MW of solar and 750 MW of wind capacity to be allocated. The facilities should be at least 5 MW, without a size cap.

“According to Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), the first CfD round for at least 1,500 MW of capacity is supposed to be organized in [second half of] 2023 and the second in [the first half of] 2025, for an additional 2,000 MW,” Mihai Balan, the executive director of the Romanian Photovoltaic Industry Association (RPIA), told pv magazine in November.

“It is a milestone in our NRRP that we have the first capacities supported by this mechanism up and running by 2026. Initially, we were expecting the scheme to be presented to the public at the end of this year, but now, with the current situation on the energy market and the fact that we are steadily heading toward a regulated market, it is safe to say that we will see the details early 2023 at best.”