Romania is preparing a €76mn household battery programme designed to increase self-consumption from the country’s rapidly expanding rooftop photovoltaic fleet. The scheme is intended to support battery storage rather than subsidising additional solar panel installations. The programme targets households that already have photovoltaic systems.
Under the proposed rules, eligible households could receive support covering up to 75 per cent of eligible investment. The subsidy would be subject to a ceiling of approximately €2,860 including VAT. Applicants would fund the remaining portion of the investment themselves.
Eligibility for batteries and installation requirements
Batteries included in the programme would need to be newly installed. They must be compatible with the household’s existing photovoltaic system. Eligible units are required to provide at least 12 kWh of storage capacity.
Policy shift from generation support to grid impact management
The programme marks a change in Romanian residential energy policy. Instead of continuing to stimulate generation alone, authorities are addressing operational consequences associated with large volumes of daytime solar production. Household batteries would store electricity produced during solar-rich hours for later use.
By shifting consumption away from peak daytime generation, batteries would reduce immediate electricity injection into distribution grids. At system level, this could ease local constraints. It could also reduce part of the steep transition between daytime solar surpluses and evening demand.
Application assessment and selection approach
The programme is expected to use a points-based ranking system to assess applications. This would be applied instead of a first-come-first-served allocation model.
