Romania has considerable own fossil fuel reserves (oil, lignite and gas). Due to a number of large hydro installations, Romania had a share of 23% of RES-E already in 1990 already (Eurostat 2011). In 2010, the share of hydro power has reached 35.9%, while other RES-E sources have not played a significant role in Romania yet (ENTSO-E 2011).
At the moment, the most relevant renewable energy source in Romania is wind energy, both with regard to the current development as well as its potential. The relevant regions for wind energy are Dobrogea, Banat and Moldova. Correspondingly, problems regarding grid connection procedures mostly refer to wind installations. The most pressing problem is the high number of emitted technical notifications for grid connection and already concluded grid connection contracts, which lead to virtual saturation of the grid. This makes it very hard for new investors to obtain the necessary permits and contracts for grid connection at the moment. Further, the Green Certificate System under law 220/2008 on the promotion of renewable energy sources is not in force yet, but has been under examination at the European Commission until lately.
The European Commission approved the law with some amendments. By publishing Emergency Ordinance Nr. 88/2011 law 220/2011 has fully entered into force now. Further, the regulator prepared secondary legislation as well e.g. regulation for Green Certificates issuing and regulation for the organization and functioning of the Green Certificates Market, which has entered into force lately. However, according to different stakeholders, so far missing specifying regulations lead to problems in practice when connecting RES-plants to the grid. RES-E producer
