Romania has approved grants of 424 million euros for the country’s transmission system operator, Transelectrica, to increase its capacity by 1.7 GW and modernize the network. The Croatian transmission network operator received 218 million euros for projects scheduled for completion by mid-2026.

The European Union is racing to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century and integrate its energy market. The development of electricity transmission networks is essential to deploy as much capacity from renewable energies as possible, since the energy sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Romanian and Croatian transmission system operators have just received several hundred million euros for upgrades, new power lines and digitization.

The package is the biggest Transelectrica has ever obtained through an EU mechanism

The Romanian Ministry of Energy has approved €424 million in grants from the Modernization Fund to Transelectrica. The package was the largest the company had ever secured through a European Union mechanism and nine contracts were signed.

The projects will increase transmission system capacity by nearly 1.7 GW, Transelectrica said. It also undertook to build 480 kilometers of new overhead lines, modernize five 400 kV electrical substations and increase the country’s interconnection capacity with Serbia and Hungary by 600 MW.

Modernization fund to help transform Romania’s energy infrastructure

Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă said Romania was entitled to over 13 billion euros from this program and the funds would be used to transform energy infrastructure and help the country achieve energy independence.

Transelectrica has provided 2 billion euros in its ten-year plan for the development of renewable energy technologies.

Ten EU member countries, including Bulgaria and Croatia, are eligible for the Modernization Fund. The subsidies come from revenues from the auctioning of 2% of total allowances under the Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) as well as additional carbon dioxide certificates transferred by beneficiary Member States.

Other public calls are underway in Romania for support from the Modernization Fund

The Ministry of Energy has just launched public calls for support from the Modernization Fund for the extension and modernization of the electricity distribution network and for high-efficiency cogeneration and district heating networks. In addition, it launched public consultations for two other programs: electricity generation from renewable sources and energy storage; and for green electricity systems for own consumption.

Croatia’s HOPS will cover the vast majority of the 11 Resilience Plan investments

The Croatian Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has approved grants of €218.3 million from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan to the Croatian Transmission System Operator (HOPS). The total value of the projects, which are to be completed by mid-2026, is €272.8 million.

The transmission system operator obtained subsidies for 80% of its network development plan

The Recovery and Resilience Facility (FRR) amounts to €723 billion. It is the largest component of the NextGenerationEU (NGEU) package, which was launched alongside the regular budget to promote green economic transformation in the 27-member bloc after the coronavirus pandemic. Just over half of RRFs are soft loans, while the rest are grants.

HOPS plans to increase its capacity for integrating renewable energies, improve electrical connections between the south and north of the country and replace the submarine cables that connect six islands to the terrestrial network. The package consists of 11 projects.

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