The major producer of graphite electrodes which receives green certificates is Elsid Titu, which produces for the metallurgy industry, and ahead of the state-owned Hidroelectrica, which provides some 30 percent of the country’s electricity. Elsid Titu has micro-hydro plants with installed power of 29.6 MW, while Hidroelectrica has similar capacities, but with lower power, of 28.150 MW. “Elsid has a great deal of new micro-hydro units, which they built up from scratch. The green certificates are allocated only to new or fully upgraded units, who have production costs that must be amortized,” according to an explanation for Business Standard by experts on the internal energy market.
Micro-hydro plants are electricity generating units of under 10 MW, and specialist indicated that green certificates, which are one way of subsidizing the price of energy, is allocated only to small-scale plants. “This is also the reason why Hidroelectrica is not in first place, as would have been normal at such capacity. The state-owned company preferred to sell small capacities, rather than make investments in these,” added the experts.
