Romania pushes back power grid connection of remaining villages to 2016, with EUR 230 mln

Connecting Romania's remaining villages to the country's power grid could cost some EUR 230 million by 2016, according to the country's Economy Ministry. Some 2,200 villages not yet connected to the grid should have electricity by 2016, with most of the funding coming from the state budget. It will cost the state around RON 11,000 to connect a single house to the power grid (around EUR 2,400).

Previous Governments promised they would connect these villages to electricity, and the latest given deadline was 2009, with an investment of EUR 150 million.

Then the deadline was pushed back to 2012; some of the financing should also have been covered by the private companies operating energy distribution networks in Romania.