Enel to invest 220 million euros in Electrica Muntenia Sud over three years

Enel Romania will be investing 220 million euros over the next three years in upgrading the electricity distribution network operated by Electrica Muntenia Sud, and its investment budget for the following 15 years will stand at 1 billion euro, Electrica Muntenia Sud Director General Luigi Giliotti told a news conference on Wednesday.

Enel Italy took over early this month the management of the Electrica Muntenia Sud Romanian electricity distribution and supply utility following the signing of a privatisation contract last summer.

‘The annual investment rate in the next three years will be three times higher than the rate before the privatisation, but we have to take into account that this is a complex process that will bring improvements for the final users in the medium run, not overnight, given that 30 percent of the existent installations are over 30 years old,’ said Giliotti.

The network upgrading plan includes the construction of new high and medium power sub-stations, new high, medium and low power lines, including underground lines, as well as modernising obsolete sub-stations and transformers. At the same time, Enel will endeavour to create a unified system and a remote control centre for its IT installations.

‘We intend to create some 600 km of underground lines, for which we have to carry out infrastructure works stretching the same distance,’ said Giliotti.

Electrica Muntenia Sud is operating a network of 46,200 km in Bucharest City, Ilfov County and Giurgiu County and it has a customer base of 1.095 million, 1.036 million of whom are household users. In 2007, the company distributed 5,520 GWh of electricity, reporting a market share of 12.4 percent nationwide.

In Bucharest City, the utility distributed 4,327 GWh of electricity to 874,000 users in 2007.

According to Giliotti, electricity demand should surge in the area covered by Electrica Muntenia Sud, which includes the capital city of Bucharest, form 430 MW in 2007 to 430 MW in 2008, which is three times more than in 2004.

Italy’s Enel utility is the owner of Enel Energie electricity trader and also of Enel Distributie Dobrogea, a utility distributing electricity to the eastern province of Dobrogea, and Enel Distributie Banat, a utility distributing electricity to the western province of Banat, both of which used to be subsidiaries of Electrica before their 2005 privatisation.

Following the acquisition of Electrica Muntenia Sud, Enel has doubled its ownership over Romania’s energy distribution sector to almost 2.5 million customers, 93,000 km of network and a staff base of 5,700. ROMPRES