June 12 (SeeNews) – Romanian electricity and natural gas distributor Delgaz Grid, a subsidiary of German utility E.ON, said on Wednesday that it will modernise 44 of its transformer stations located in the northeastern counties of Bacau, Botosani, Iasi, Neamt, Suceava, and Vaslui as part of ten projects worth 1.5 billion lei ($324 million/301.4 million euro), which it will carry out until 2030.

Delgaz submitted funding requests for the transformer overhaul projects, aiming to receive 1.1 billion lei in financing from the European Union’s Modernisation Fund, the company said in a press release.

“The main works considered are the modernisation of the medium and high voltage equipment and the command, control and measurement circuits, increasing the capacity of the stations by installing 70 power transformers, SCADA integrations and upgrades, installation of photovoltaic panels on station buildings,” Delgaz said.

Funded by revenues from the auction of emission allowances from the EU’s Emissions Trading System, the Modernisation Fund assists ten EU countries with lower incomes in their transition to climate neutrality.

Delgaz Grid has submitted a total of 20 projects worth 3.3 billion lei up-to-date, in order to receive 2.6 billion lei in financing from the Modernisation Fund, as per the statement. These projects involve the modernisation of transformer stations as well as high, medium and low voltage networks, SMART metering, and increasing network capacity. Six of these projects, with a total value of 900 million lei, have already been approved to receive a cumulative funding of 700 million lei.

“After the record level of last year’s investments in the area of ​​electricity, of 455 million lei, we continue at a sustained pace the projects for the development of the distribution network. In the absence of a regulatory framework suitable for the transition energy, the Modernization Fund constitutes an oxygen balloon for obtaining the necessary funding to increase the system’s capacity to receive energy produced from renewable sources,” Delgaz Grid general manager Cristian Secosan said.

Delgaz Grid operates a natural gas network of 25,800 km in twenty counties and an 81,500 km electricity grid in six counties in northeastern Romania.

(1 euro=4.9767 lei)