Past, Present And Future Of The Romanian Electricity Field

Organized on the 30th of March 2021, by the World Energy Council / Romanian National Committee (WEC/RNC) together with the main Romanian DSO and Live Streamed from the National Technical Museum "Dimitrie Leonida" in Bucharest, it was an event with a great emotional load during which it was evoked the important contribution of our forerunners in building the energy system in Romania. The current problems of the electricity sector and the challenges that energy specialists will face in the future were also presented.

Representatives, specialist and academia of the Romanian electricity field were invited to discuss the legacy that we need to keep, respect and learn from the PAST, as the peak of the energy transition is fast approaching. The current problems of the electricity sector and the challenges that energy specialists will face in the future were presented for the PRESENT situation.The most important topics that were addressed during the conference were the experience of operators in the energy sector in providing high-performance distribution services offered to end users; the new role of Distribution System Operator (DSO), which will be fulfilled by the emergence of active consumers (prosumers) and distributed generation; implementation of new technologies and new business models, as well as the results obtained; preparing specialized staff for access to new technologies; increasing the performance of the distribution service and evaluating the performance indicators.

From the conference discussions we can highlight the following topics and conclusions for the FUTURE:

• We are witnessing a change in the paradigm of the electricity field that was unimaginable in the past due to rapid technological developments. Romania has many opportunities regarding the development of new production infrastructures and, very importantly, electricity storage from renewable sources. The backbone of the energy transition is the distribution of electricity;
• The concept of Smart Grid is specific to the energy systems of the future and detailed projects are needed for its implementation, because the digitalization of electricity distribution requires strong IT platforms and a large and secure communication system;
• In the near future, the energy transition will be dominated by decarbonisation, decentralization, digitization, electrification and urbanization, and the sustainability objectives of the energy sector imply accountability to shareholders, responsibility to the environment and to society;
• Currently, in Bucharest, the performance indicator for the quality of the distribution service is the SAIDI indicator, of 95 minutes. It is desired to reduce this indicator in order to make Bucharest a modern European capital;
• The new Energy Law which is being drafted under the coordination of the Ministry of Energy and as must transpose the provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/944 and Regulation (EU) 2019/943 that are mandatory. The legislation needs to be linked and correlated to the current regulations, as the sector is already over-regulated;
• In redesigning the future energy system, an important condition is to ensure the flexibility of equipment and various processes of the sector. The DSO will also take over the role of the System Operator and will be able to become a flexibile operator between the frequency regulation and the voltage regulation