ELECTRICITY - DISTRIBUTION Martin Zmelik, CEO CEZ Romania:
“WE BELIEVE IN GRADUAL GROWTH THROUGH NEW INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS” “Our expectations from the local energy market haven’t changed in the past year. We are still pleading for stability and predictibility, especially in the legal framework” – says Martin Zmelik, CEO CEZ Romania. Many interesting information about business, projects developed, and many more, in an interview with Mr. Zmelik.
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ast year you were waiting a Romanian energy strategy, and did not happened. Your business in Romania were in stand-by – no future investments, no sellings, strenghtening of your business was the key word. This year we discuss again about an energy strategy of Romania. What are you expecting from this strategy as a foreign investor? Actually, we were far from „stand-by” last year and we invested significantly, as every year in the past decade, especially in the modernization of the grid. In addition to the 1.638 mio euro invested in the modernization of the grid in between 2005 – 2014, in 2015 alone 161 853,68 ths lei were invested in integrating power stations into SCADA, modernize and replace transformers, install remote controlled equipment and improve the quality of the grid in lower voltage levels. And our constant efforts, not only in terms of funds, but also in terms of network management, have a direct impact in reducing the duration of the interruptions, improving the overall technical parameters and, all in all, offering the client a more qualitative energy distribution service. But you are right about the other part: we did not sell and we focused on consolidating our current portfolio. Because we are a long term investor in Romania and we are a partner of the business and local community. We believe in gradual growth through new initiatives and projects in the areas like energy efficiency, ESCO services, storage and other new trends in the sector. Our expectations from the local energy market haven’t changed in the past year. We are still pleading for stability and predictibility, especially in the legal framework.
How did your businesses in Romania have been affected by the unpredictable law and regulatory framework, and by the unstable financial rules, and what solutions did you find? It is well known that we are still mainly impacted in CEZ wind farm in Dobrogea region by the unpredictable changes in the renewable support scheme in 2013. On one hand, we worked on optimizing our internal production related processes and, on the other, we have also consolidated
the financial situation of the wind companies by increasing the share capital of the parent companies. In reply to all the other new taxes and legal changes in the energy distribution sector, we approached the method that always proved effective in our case: we analyzed the options for optimization and moved fast forward in implementing the most appropriate ones. It takes a certain mobility and strength, but we also have a great team of specialists we can also count on finding the right solutions. 127