ROMANIA: Romania is repeater in terms of energy storage, how much would a national storage system cost

Investments in storage systems through which all of Romania’s electricity consumption for four hours would be covered by energy stored in batteries would mean around 4 billion euros, i.e. the same amount that the state budget paid to suppliers to compensate for waste energy. says the Association of Prosumers (APCE).

Romania is “repeater” in terms of energy storage, currently having only 24 MWh (6 MWx4h), claims APCE, which means “nothing”.

“Recently, Romania went through an unprecedented energy crisis due to the heat wave that generated high energy consumption with the operation of air conditioning and ventilation. The National Energy System has overcome, with firefighting measures, the energy production crisis. The fact that we lack storage capacities and from all available statistical data, shows that Romania was dependent on large and enormously expensive energy imports. In the scenario in which 150,000 prosumers did not exist, they would also have consumed from the network and would not have injected their surplus into the local low-voltage networks, and Romania would have been in energy collapse,” the Association says.

“Ironically, this comes after the parliamentarians recently voted, in an emergency, that they no longer need the energy of prosumers. Fortunately, at the insistence of two associations: APCE and PATRES, following the submitted petitions, the President of Romania took note of those submitted and returned the law to the Parliament for a more careful re-examination”, recalls APCE

“Storage at the level of the National Energy System was the solution. We can copy the developed countries of Western Europe, but who will?”, says the Association, which gives some examples: In 2023, Germany added about 6.1 GWh of new energy storage capacity, making it the largest energy storage market in Europe. The UK and Italy also saw significant growth, adding around 4.0 GWh and 3.9 GWh respectively.

Looking ahead, the trend is expected to continue. In 2024, Germany, the UK and Italy are expected to add around 7.1 GWh, 7.7 GWh and 6.2 GWh respectively, showing substantial increases in storage capacity.

“These developments are crucial to the continent’s energy transition, helping to balance supply and demand and ensuring stability in the face of increased renewable energy production. The investment in a storage system that would allow ALL of Romania to operate for four hours on batteries would have cost approximately 4 billion euros, exactly the money given by the Romanian state to suppliers to compensate for expensive energy,” the Association says.