ANRE Order 15/2026 raises the connection guarantee to 20% and sets a new authorisation deadline that voids the ATR if it is missed. It was published in Monitorul Oficial no. 436 on 25 May 2026 and amends four instruments at once: the connection regulation (Order 59/2013), the framework content of the technical connection approval (Order 74/2014), the framework connection contracts (Order 105/2022), and the capacity allocation methodology (Order 53/2024).
For a project above 1 MW in Romania it changes three things: what it costs to hold a connection, what you must produce to keep it, and when it dies. None of these are tariff changes. This is queue discipline — the regulator attaching money and deadlines to connection slots that were previously cheap to hold and slow to lose.
Storage is now inside the connection regulation
The order rewrites the definitions. Throughout the regulation, a consumption site now also means an HVDC system or a consumption site with a storage installation. A production site, or a combined consumption and production site, now also covers such sites with a storage installation, sites combining storage and HVDC, and standalone storage installations.
The practical effect is that a standalone battery is no longer connected by analogy with a generator. The ATR templates in Order 74/2014 and the framework connection contracts in Order 105/2022 carry explicit wording for it, and for hybrid solar-plus-storage sites. Where operators previously applied their own reading, there is now a text to point at.
The connection guarantee moves from 5% to 20%
Under Article 31, the network operator requires a financial guarantee for a new production or consumption-and-production site, for a standalone storage installation, or for a power increase that takes total approved capacity for export or consumption above 1 MW. That guarantee is now 20% of the connection tariff excluding VAT. The 5% rate remains for the consumption-side case.
The order also fixes the calculation base. Guarantees are computed on the tariff excluding VAT, and operators that used the VAT-inclusive figure must refund the difference on request — including on guarantees already posted. For projects currently in the queue that is recoverable cash, not a paper correction.
Extensions are priced separately. Where the connection contract is extended, the additional guarantee is 5% of the tariff excluding VAT and rises by a further 5% for each successive 12-month period added to the contract.
A new deadline that voids the ATR
The substantive change is the setting-up authorisation. For sites with approved export capacity above 1 MW, including their storage installations, the developer must obtain the autorizație de înființare from ANRE by the date the connection works execution contract is signed — and in any case no later than 12 months from the connection contract and 18 months from the issue of the ATR.
Three relief mechanisms sit alongside it. If ANRE confirms the application file is complete before the deadline, the deadline extends by up to 60 days to allow the authorisation to be issued. The network operator may extend once by up to 12 months where the applicant provides evidence that the delay is not attributable to it. And the operator must answer an extension request in writing within 10 working days; if it does not, the deadline extends automatically by the length of the delay, capped at 12 months.
If the authorisation is not obtained, the ATR ceases to be valid and the connection contract terminates by operation of law. The financial guarantee is executed. The same consequence follows six months after an existing authorisation expires or is withdrawn, if ANRE has not granted a replacement within that window.
What applies to contracts already signed
Projects already holding a connection contract are not exempt. For contracts above 1 MW in force when the order took effect, the setting-up authorisation must be obtained within 12 months of entry into force. Miss it and the outcome is the same: the ATR lapses and the contract terminates by law.
The relief provisions — the operator extension and the 10-working-day silence rule — also apply to connection contracts signed earlier in 2026, before the order took effect.
Capacity auctions now require a bid bond
The capacity allocation methodology gains a participation guarantee, posted at the moment the allocation request is filed. For 2026 it is EUR 20,000 per MW of requested capacity, converted at the National Bank reference rate on the date of issue. From 2027 it is the lower of that figure and the weighted average of contract prices from the previous year's completed auctions.
The transmission operator releases auction platform credentials only where the guarantee is in place. It is returned within two working days to unsuccessful bidders, and to the winner within two working days of receiving the signed allocation contract. If the winner fails to return that contract together with the capacity payment guarantee, the bid bond is executed and the allocated capacity is lost. Applicants already registered before the order had to post the bond by 14 July 2026.
Money collected from executed guarantees does not stay with the operator as revenue. It is ring-fenced as a financing source for the grid reinforcement and development works needed to connect users.
What this changes for a project in Romania
For developers, the permitting critical path now runs through the connection contract. The authorisation file depends on documents that take months to assemble, and the clock starts at contract signature rather than at construction permit. Work that used to be sequenced after the building permit has to move in parallel with it.
For acquirers, the diligence question is no longer whether the target holds an ATR. It is when the authorisation deadline falls, whether an extension was requested, and whether the operator's written answer arrived inside 10 working days. A missed date is not a defect that can be cured after closing — the ATR is gone and the guarantee has been executed.
For financial models, 20% of the connection tariff is working capital held until final energisation, and every 12-month slip in the operator's own works adds another 5%. A model built on the earlier 5% assumption understates the funding requirement on the connection line, and understates it most on the largest connections.
ANRE amended the licensing and authorisation regulation in parallel (Order 16/2026, amending Order 6/2025), so the procedure behind the setting-up authorisation has moved as well. Read the two together rather than in isolation.
STG Nations reviews connection contracts and authorisation timelines as part of grid connection strategy work. If you hold a Romanian connection contract signed before May 2026, the date worth checking this month is the setting-up authorisation deadline.