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Practice note

Taking your AI early can cost you the project

Where an AI application relied on precontractual financing documents, one clock starts the day the AI is granted. It is a filing duty, not a financial-close test.

Sol Associates, 1 October 20264 min read

Terminology. AI here means autorizație de înființare, the ANRE authorisation to establish a generation or storage plant. It does not mean artificial intelligence. ATR is the technical connection permit (aviz tehnic de racordare) and CR is the connection contract (contract de racordare).

Taking an AI at the earliest possible date can cost you the project, and the reason is a clock that most applicants read too late.

What the rule says

Where an AI application relied on precontractual financing documents, the holder must file the final financing documents with ANRE within the term set in the AI’s specific conditions (condiții specifice). That term is capped at six months from the date the AI was granted. If it is missed, the sanction is withdrawal of the AI.

The duty sits in the licensing Regulament approved by ANRE Order 6/2025, as amended by Order 16/2026. The filing duty is at Article 19 alin. (3) and the withdrawal sanction at Article 45 lit. j).

What it is, and what it is not

  • It is a filing duty

    The holder must file the final financing documents with ANRE. That is a documentary obligation.

  • It is not a financial-close test

    The rule does not require financing to be effective or drawn. It is widely misstated as a six-month financial-close deadline, and it is not one.

  • It is conditional

    It applies where the application leaned on precontractual financing evidence. The text is built around that condition.

  • Six months is a cap

    The binding term is the one ANRE writes into the AI’s specific conditions. Six months is the outer limit on that term, not a grace period handed to every holder.

Why sequencing matters

The AI is not only a permitting milestone. Issuing it starts this filing clock. Take the AI before the financing package can be assembled and you have started a clock you cannot yet answer. The date the AI is granted is one you influence, so the filing deadline is, in practice, a date you can set for yourself.

The practical consequence is one of order. Plan the AI to its own deadline rather than to the earliest date it can be obtained, so that the documents exist by the time the term begins to run. The AI deadline itself has several triggers, set out in Your AI has three clocks.

A question to ask of your own plan

Is your AI timing set by when you can get it, or by when the financing evidence is ready? If the honest answer is the first, check what the AI’s specific conditions say about the filing term before you accept the authorisation.

General information prepared from public sources, not legal advice. Read the disclaimer.