Romanian Minister of Energy Virgil Popescu said that prosumers will not pay new taxes, which was recently speculated in the media, and that the emergency ordinance referred to in media is actually the transposition of a directive that mentions the possibility of introducing such a tax, from 2026, under certain conditions.
Minister Popescu said that Romania implemented a directive on renewable energy, through which prosumers can install their panels in several locations and can benefit from the same compensation and exchange between locations, which was not provided until now, only if they have the same distribution network. It is something that the prosumers have been asking for a long time. Failure to implement the directive would have meant sanctions, as Romania was already in the referral procedure to the EU Court of Justice.
He explained that it is about the implementation of a directive that mentions this possibility, but that the Ministry of Energy will never support the introduction of such a tax. Under certain conditions, there is a possibility that when the number of consumers is very high and reaches 8 % of the capacity of the national electricity system, then the Government can introduce a tax from 2026. However, this is highly unlikely.
In October, the National Regulatory Authority for Energy (ANRE) said that the number of prosumers connected to electricity distribution network in Romania has reached 23,785 at the end of August this year, with expectations that it will surpass 30,000 by the end of the year.
