The lack of transparency on the Romanian electricity trading market and the transport tariffs imposed by transmission system operators (TSOs) are among the major challenges for energy traders in the country, Daniel Pintilie who is in charge of Norwegian utility Statkraft’s business development in Romania told SeeNews Renewables in an interview.
On the sidelines of the Energy Trading Central and South Eastern Europe 2012 event in Prague on June 13-14, Pintilie explained that transparency was quite important for all companies involved in energy trading, but that it remained in question. He noted that the well functioning of the market depended on a transparent and simple flow of information between all levels — TSOs, the Romanian power market operator OPCOM, the Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) and market players. Pintilie added that Romania needed to establish an intraday power market as soon as possible.
The participants in the Energy Trading conference paid significant attention to the TSO transport tariffs and all forms of power export and import fees that one can encounter on the Southeastern European (SEE) market. Transmission tariffs, which are designed in such a way that they have the effect of import or export fees, are a major obstacle for market integration. Market coupling as defined in the target model by the European Commission (EC) is incompatible with such fees.
Statkraft Romania was established in 2007 as a subsidiary of Statkraft Markets GmbH, which is part of Norwegian state-owned utility Statkraft AS. Statkraft Markets is focused on wholesale trading like cross-border power trading. The company is active in both over-the-counter (OTC) and exchange trading. As part of a plan to develop new business models, the company is evaluating long-term off-take deals, also known as power purchase agreements (PPAs), for the output of wind power projects. Statkraft Romania has no assets in the country and no own generation projects in the pipeline for now.
Romanian power market at a glance
At the end of 2011, Romania had 6.144 GW of installed hydropower capacity, 1.3 GW of nuclear power, 1.03 GW of renewable energy and 8.9 GW of fossil fuel power plants. Its electrical output last year amounted to 55,467 GWh, down 0.2% in annual terms, according to data from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU). The share of conventional thermal power plants in the country’s electricity mix was 52.7%, while hydropower and nuclear power fetched 26.3% and 19.5%, respectively.
Electricity exports for 2011 dropped by 19.2% year-on-year to 2,457 GWh, while imports climbed by 1.2% to 776 GWh.
Source seenews
