Romania To Make Energy Storage Mandatory

• The Romanian Parliament wants to make energy storage systems mandatory for prosumers 
• APCE is against the decision saying this shows the government does not want to have consumers feeding green energy to the grid  
• It wants the President to ask the Parliament to re-examine the law as it will discourage people from investing in PV systems  

The Romanian Association of Prosumers and Energy Communities (APCE) is up in arms against the recent decision of the country's Parliament to make energy storage systems mandatory for all prosumers.  

It refers to the Chamber of Deputies adopting Law 255/2024 that, once accepted by the Romanian President, will come into force. The government says prosumers will have time until 2027 to comply with the mandate. It sees prosumers feeding excess solar energy into the grid as contributing to grid congestion. 

According to the proposed law, energy storage systems will be a must for prosumers installing solar PV systems ranging between 10.8 kW and 400 kW capacity. Solar PV systems with a capacity between 3 KW and 200 kW will need to have storage systems representing at least 30% of the installed power of the production units.  

For those with power generation systems of between 300 kW and 400 kW, the storage facilities will have a capacity of at least 50% of the installed power, according to the amendment adopted by the Romanian Parliament, as reported by the local news portal economedia.  

However, APCE says while this move will discourage some people from investing in PV systems, it may 'radicalize others to invest in storage and become semi-grid independent with a boomerang effect for those who wanted it.' 

"It is very clear that by implementing this law, the Romanian State no longer wants to have green energy injected into the network by prosumers, it does not want to reach the decarbonization targets imposed by the EU or it does not want to comply with the obligations assumed to access enormous European funds tens of billions of euros for renewable energy," stated APCE.  

It now wants the President to send it back to the Parliament to re-examine. The association also plans to 'legally attack' this law through all legal channels.   

Romania had more than 100,000 prosumers at the end of 2023 with an installed capacity of over 1.5 GW. It increased from 40,171 prosumers with 417 MW capacity at 2022-end (see Romania Installed 624 MW New Electricity Capacity In 2023).