Bucharest City Hall May Compel Reconnection To Public Heating System

The only alternative afforded to owners of individual heating units (natural gas-powered) will be to outfit their homes with units which use renewable energy sources.

Bucharest Mayor Sorin Oprescu said the study is "preposterous," but added it was published in its current form to serve only as general guidelines.

The study was prepared by a private firm, under a contract signed with the City in late 2007, and is available for public debate on City Hall's website until May 14. The document's authors do not explain how renewable energy sources could be installed in buildings where some tenants are still hooked up to the centralized system, but admit that only half of the city's buildings could support solar panels.

The study estimates that the target number of natural gas consumers connected to the centralized system will be reached some time between 2018 and 2025.

Municipal heating supplier RADET is bankrupt, the authors say, after years of neglect and inefficiency. To save the company, the City would have to increase subsidies significantly, or privatize it.

The document says the total cost of the heat distribution system's reconstruction and expansion is around EUR1.18 billion for 2009-2020 (about EUR100 million per year), to be collected from private investors and new connection fees. The connection fee should be between EUR1,200 and EUR3,500.

The study also recommends doing away with general subsidies and implementing a system of financial aid according to social criteria, after Bucharest is divided into 10 to 15 distribution areas.

"Reconstruction will reduce heat loss by 50% and cut CO2 emissions by about 130,000 tons per year. However, when the distribution system will have grown to double its current size, heat losses will be equal to their present level. These losses have never been computed or precisely measured and various reports present figures between 15% and 35%," the study warns.

Authorities tried to ban individual heating units in 2002, citing environmental problems, after a high number of requests for disconnection. At the time, the Government drafted several bills against this trend, but its attempts failed because of legal issues. In the end, though, the official procedure required to install a personal heating unit was made more difficult.

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