The Ministry of Energy is finalizing the updated state aid scheme for autonomous electricity storage investments, bringing it in line with the EU’s new CISAF framework introduced by the European Commission in June 2025. Financed through the Modernisation Fund, the scheme focuses on new, stand-alone storage facilities designed to operate independently of renewable generation assets.

Timeline. What to Expect?

Public consultation on the revised scheme is expected in December 2025, and the project call is estimated for April 2026, after the European Commission notification is completed. Meanwhile, the legal framework for grid connection technical approvals (ATR) is set to change. From 1 January 2026, ANRE plans to phase out the current approval system and introduce a guarantee equal to 30% of the grid connection contract value, a measure designed to strengthen investment discipline and speed up connections. 

In this context, early project structuring is essential. We can help you kick off SPV preparation now and provide free eligibility report calibration to align documentation with scheme requirements. Teams that finalize projects before the call launches will enter the competition with a clear advantage, both in response time and investment maturity. This is the right moment to get to work.

What does the new CISAF framework bring?

CISAF represents a shift in EU industrial policy, replacing the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (TCTF) and streamlining state-aid approvals for clean energy, storage, and industrial decarbonization.

For Romania, adapting to CISAF means:

• Faster Brussels decisions: 4 to 6 weeks from pre-notification.
• Flexible combination of grants, guarantees and tax deductions in one support package.
• Broader financial instruments for clean energy and storage investments.

For investors, the new framework brings:

• Greater predictability and procedural clarity, with transparent eligibility and evaluation rules.
• Formal recognition of storage and demand-response as critical energy-system infrastructure.
• Higher aid intensity in less-developed regions: up to 35–55% of eligible costs.

The scheme marks a move from an administrative to a strategic framework, oriented toward building a functional flexibility market. Romania now joins a select group treating storage as critical infrastructure, alongside Germany, Greece and Poland.

Why is energy storage still critical?

Romania targets at least 1,000 MW of storage in the next two years, supported by a growing project pipeline and accelerated CISAF procedures, ambitious yet realistic for a system facing more frequent structural imbalances.

Renewables growth is reshaping grid dynamics. By mid 2025, Transelectrica had issued ATRs for more than 6,000 MW of solar and wind, a significant share slated to start construction in 2026. This expansion strains the grid, surplus low-cost generation cannot be fully absorbed at midday peaks, while high-demand periods tighten system margins. Stand-alone storage can stabilize these swings, ease congestion and catalyze a flexibility market with direct economic benefits.

With balancing capacity constrained and transmission upgrades progressing slowly, stand-alone batteries provide strategic breathing room, buying time for grid modernization and sustaining the energy transition without extra pressure on the public budget. They may seem transitional, but they are essential.

For investors, commercial stand-alone BESS form a new asset class, generating revenues from price arbitrage, balancing markets, system services and direct contracts with large consumers seeking supply stability.

Current estimates point to approximately 400 MW of stand-alone capacity by 2030, modest compared to system balancing needs. Still, early entrants will be best positioned as competition rises and returns compress.

In a transforming system, flexibility is the new currency. For Romania, stand-alone BESS is not a technological luxury, it is a strategic tool that safeguards transition continuity and market stability at a critical inflection point.