The Importance of Decentralized Energy Production and the Need for Energy Mix at the Conference “Energy Efficiency for Energy Transition”

Mihai David, President of COGEN Romania Association, Stresses the Importance of Decentralized Energy Production and the Need for Energy Mix at the Conference “Energy Efficiency for Energy Transition”.

During the conference “Energy Efficiency for Energy Transition — Brasov”, Mihai David, President of COGEN Romania Association, brought up crucial topics related to the future of the energy sector in Romania.

Mr. David highlighted the importance of decentralized energy production, emphasizing the need to have a diversified energy mix as well as carbon capture and use in industrial applications. He stressed that discussions on decarbonisation were essential, but less addressed were issues related to decentralisation. His proposal for a sustainable energy future focused on the idea of distributed energy, generated in small power plants, which minimizes technological losses in transmission and distribution networks and reduces long-distance transport to consumers.

The discrepancy between the place of majority production and the main consumption area

Another issue addressed by Mr. David was the discrepancy between the place of majority production (Dobrogea and Oltenia) and the main consumption area (Transylvania), pointing out that solutions such as the replacement of coal-fired power plants in Oltenia with large natural gas plants do not effectively solve the problem of high energy transport costs to consumers.

“We are closing the mines in Oltenia, but replacing them with large gas plants. Why concentrate power in one place, when the major consumption is elsewhere?” added David.

Regarding costs, Mr David pointed out that the cost of CO2 certificates was a major problem for classical energy producers, suggesting that building smaller power plants could be a viable solution to reduce these costs.

COGEN Romania Association, with its 28 members, mainly producers and distributors of thermal energy in 20 cities in Romania, focuses on promoting these concepts and encouraging sustainable solutions for the energy sector.

The Brasov conference is the first of a series of 5 events organized by the Energynomics communication platform, the Romanian Energy Efficiency Fund — FREE and the Energy Efficiency Directorate of the Ministry of Energy, a project financed by Norwegian Grants 2014-2021.

More details in the recording of the conference, here:

photo source and youtube: energynomics.ro