Connecting a battery in Romania: ATR, guarantees and the new auction regime

The documents in order

A Romanian battery project needs an establishment authorisation (the permit to build), a technical connection approval (ATR) that fixes connection conditions and approved power, and finally an operating licence. Since 2026, each step carries a financial guarantee: €30 per kW for the establishment authorisation, 20% of the connection tariff for the connection itself, and €20,000 per MW to enter the capacity auction.

What changed in 2026

ANRE Order 15/2026 armed the auction regime created by Order 53/2024. For projects of 5 MW and above, grid capacity in the ten zones is no longer allocated first-come-first-served but auctioned per delivery year, with allocations valid for ten years from 2028. Smaller projects and co-located storage at existing sites still follow the classic procedure.

Our take

The guarantee stack changes project finance. A 50 MW battery now commits €1 million just to enter the auction, plus 20% of the connection tariff later. That kills casual applications — which is the point — but it also means a failed site is expensive. The cheap part of development, screening substations and land, just became the highest-leverage spend in the whole budget.

What to do with this

Screen hard before you guarantee anything. Compare candidate substations on grid strength, competing planned projects and available land within cable distance. Gridscouter's Romania map does exactly that, and the land finder checks each plot for zoning, protected areas and flood risk. Every Gridscouter plan starts with 14 days of full access for €0 today. Cancel any time before the trial ends and you pay nothing.

Gridscouter scores are estimates from open map data, not grid operator capacity figures. Always confirm connection capacity with the grid operator.