Lucian Enaru, Schneider Electric: “We need massive investments in the energy system. On average, the implementation time of a project in Romania is twice as long as a similar project in Western Europe”

“We have an energy strategy in Romania, but the main problem is not the quality of the strategy, but the execution plan of the strategy. Usually, we tend to either pay less attention to the execution of this plan, or to contest various components of the plan. These are normal things in a society that wants progress and wants to be more efficient and competitive, but at the same time they slow us down a lot.

We need massive investments in the energy system in Romania. On average, the implementation time of a project in Romania is twice as long as a similar project implemented in Western Europe.

For example, in Romania it takes less time to build a factory from scratch than to connect that factory to the national energy system, the main causes being the bureaucracy,” Lucian Enaru, Country General Manager, Schneider Electric said at Energy CEO Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

Key statements:

• In addition, we need human resources, people to implement energy projects. In Europe there are specialized programs that address certain strategic or national security segments.
• I think everyone agrees that the energy system is a segment of national security. I don’t know if there are specific regulations through which we aim to attract and motivate young people to work in this sector.
• We have collaborations with almost all the faculties in the energy field in Romania and there are also many private companies that support the development of education.
• The speed with which energy projects are implemented in Romania is not enough and is not what the industry wants. All distributors and all players in the energy system have investments underway at the moment. The question is how to accelerate the completion of these investments.
• The new investments will also address the problem of prosumer management. There are advanced solutions, some even being implemented by some companies, that manage the entire prosumer network much more efficiently.
• Artificial intelligence comes with some additional costs. In our region, the largest data center is being built in Greece. Romania has small or very small data centers. A large data center is like a small town from an energy consumption perspective.
• Unfortunately, our region is not prepared to accommodate such investments in data centers due to its low energy capacity.