Bucharest to spend €250m on world’s largest plumbing job

The European Commission has approved a Romanian plan to spend EUR 254 million of its Structural Funds on repairing Bucharest’s city-wide district heating system

Bucharest has a total of 950 km of main lines and almost 3,000 km of secondary lines, which supply 1.2 million people in 562,000 apartments in 8,200 apartment blocks. It is the second largest district heating system in the world after Moscow.

In 2019, it was found that Radet, the state-owned company that operates the facility, was losing up to 2,000 tons of hot water per hour (see further reading).

Ciprian Ciucu, a member of the Bucharest City Council, commented at the time: “The Radet network is in a very poor condition and therefore the pressure has to be increased so that the heat can reach the houses. And when the pressure increases, other damage occurs. It is a doom-loop.”

The problems have persisted ever since. According to the Romania Insider website, thousands of households in Bucharest were without heating or hot water for several days in a row due to burst pipes and power failures.

The repair job aims to restore the integrity of the pipes that distribute the hot water. In particular, the main heat transfer pipes will be renewed, with around 10% of the total length of the network being renewed.

Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President of the European Commission, commented: “This 254 million.”

Image: Radet workers on duty in Bucharest (Radets)

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