Italian Enel Group will invest about €565mn in Romania in 2018-2020 to upgrade its electricity distribution infrastructure, Enel Group infrastructure and network manager Liviu Gallo stated in an annual presentation to investors and journalists quoted by profit.ro. 

Investment is a delicate topic for Enel’s Romanian subsidiaries, which according to the Romanian state failed to meet the promises made when the group took over three of the country’s eight regional electricity distribution networks.

Out of the €565 million, about €400mn will be invested in the digitisation of Romanian networks, including the installation of smart meters for consumers. By by the end of this year the company expects to have such smart meters installed for 300,000 consumers, and the number is due to rise to 2.1mn households, or over 70% of its customers, by 2020.

In April 2017, Enel announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Enel Investment Holding (EIH) had finalised the acquisition of around 13.6% of the share capital of Romanian power distribution company E-Distributie Muntenia (EDM) and power supply firm Enel Energie Muntenia (EEM) for around €400mn.

The decision followed a decision of the Arbitration Court in Paris which ruled in favour of the Romanian state in a case concerning the put option included in the privatisation contract signed with Enel for the majority stake of Electrica Muntenia Sud, which was split into the two companies.