Romania could attract an additional 1 billion euros in annual private investment for its electricity and gas networks if regulators introduce a more attractive framework for investors, according to Volker Raffel, Chief Executive Officer of E.ON Romania.

Speaking on the sidelines of the FOREN 2026 conference, Raffel said that a study published by Valorem last year estimated that Romania needs around 1 billion euros in additional annual investments beyond current spending levels to modernize and expand its energy infrastructure.

“We published the Valorem study a year ago, and it concluded that Romania needs around 1 billion euros in additional investment on top of what is currently being spent. This applies to both gas and electricity networks nationwide. And it is achievable,” Raffel said.

According to him, current annual investments in distribution infrastructure amount to roughly 500 million euros nationwide, based on figures published by Romania’s energy regulator, ANRE, and funded primarily from distributors’ own resources during the fifth regulatory period.

“Today, investment levels are around 500 million euros nationally. The figures are published by ANRE and reflect the distributors’ own investments. If we had a regulatory framework that was attractive for private capital, an additional 1 billion euros in investments would be possible,” he said.

Raffel argued that public budgets and European funds alone are insufficient to meet the country’s growing infrastructure needs.

“There is not enough money in public budgets to finance all the investments required. We have already maximized the use of available European funds. To carry out these additional investments, we must also attract private capital, and that would be possible with a more suitable regulatory framework,” he said.

The E.ON Romania CEO highlighted the broader economic benefits of network investments, citing findings from the Valorem study.

“The Valorem study shows that every euro invested generates an additional 10 euros in GDP. The multiplier effect is one to ten every year,” Raffel noted.

He stressed that expanding network investments would accelerate the integration of renewable energy, battery storage systems and new industrial consumers.

“If we make these investments, we can connect more renewable energy projects, integrate all battery storage facilities, and accommodate additional electricity demand,” he said.

Raffel pointed to growing demand for grid connections in the Moldova region of Romania, where E.ON operates its electricity distribution network.

“In Moldova, which is part of our distribution area, companies are approaching us and requesting grid connections. However, because our investment budget is limited, we no longer have sufficient funds for all of them. We are addressing renewable energy projects, but we do not have enough resources to connect large-scale storage facilities, batteries, new factories or data centres,” he said.

“We are receiving requests from manufacturing companies, storage developers and data centres. The demand is there.”

To unlock greater investment capacity, Raffel called for regulatory reforms that would improve the attractiveness of Romania’s energy sector for both lenders and shareholders.

“We need a regulatory framework that allows us to convince both banks and shareholders to increase investments in Romania,” he said.

Among the key measures proposed by the industry is an increase in the Regulated Rate of Return (RRR), which Raffel argued no longer reflects current economic realities.

“One of our main requests is an increase in the Regulated Rate of Return because the current RRR does not reflect today’s economic conditions,” he said.

He also advocated revising the incentive mechanism for network investments.

“Our proposal is to replace the current incentives, which apply only to part of the investments and only after several years, with a system that applies incentives to all investments starting one year after the facilities are commissioned. If we achieve that, we will have effectively solved the issue related to the regulated rate of return,” Raffel concluded.