Interview with Gheorghe Visan

A career in power

Gheorghe Visan chaired Core CCR from 2018 up to last year. His lifelong career has been dedicated to the power industry, having worked for power generation companies, distribution system operators, and Transelectrica - the Romania’s national grid operator.

“As the Director Energy Markets at Transelectrica, I oversee many areas,” Gheorghe explains. “These range from transmission and ancillary markets to support schemes for high-efficiency generation to green certifications. European market integration is also a key responsibility, hence my involvement in Core CCR.”

Smooth operators

Core CCR helps transmission system operators (TSOs) to EU regulations. This includes developing robust processes for coordinating capacity calculation for different timeframes, coordinated regional operational security analyses, and cost-sharing mechanisms. To ensure smooth cross-border electricity flows, TSOs must follow the same methodologies and algorithms. Meanwhile, they must also adapt to constant regulatory changes.

West meets East

Core CRR really lives up its name and plays a central role in the European energy landscape. Established in 2017, merged the Central Western and Central Eastern European region. Stretching from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and the North Sea to the Mediterranean, it is one of the largest in regions in geography and stakeholders.

 “In 2017, we faced a long to-do list from ACER, the EU’s energy regulator,” Gheorghe recalls. “We didn’t start from scratch but built on past experiences. Still, trust between TSOs with little or no history of working together was a big challenge. The region’s diversity in technical cultures, traditions, and sensitivities added to the complexity. When I became chair in 2018, my focus was on building bridges.”

"As chair, my focus was on building bridges."

Guiding progress

Bringing together representatives and experts from across the energy sector is highly complex. The decisions made in Core CCR impact national and European stakeholders. Magnus Energy specialises in managing these international projects and has guided Core CRR from the start by providing complex project management services. 

“Magnus Energy’s team supports working groups and ensures decisions get made,” Gheorghe says. “The team is like a strong hand in a velvet glove. Their help in preparing and moderating meetings was invaluable.” 

Managing complexity

Gheorghe saw his role as a facilitator, focused on consensus-building: “Market integration is about finding a common ground. Finding the right compromise to devise, approve and apply common methodologies, processes and IT systems. Leading the Core CCR steering group meetings, together with Magnus Energy, required a fantastic intellectual effort. The topics were complex, and the group was diverse in both character and experience. Reaching decisions wasn’t always easy.”

"The group was diverse in both character and experience."

Major milestones

During his tenure, Gheorghe helped tackle many challenges. “In these seven years, there are some lightning stars in the fog of the memories,” he says. “When we started, the flow-based methodology for capacity calculation needed to be elaborated to accommodate individual TSO operational processes and IT systems that did not yet work in that way. I’m proud that we launched flow-based capacity calculation for the day-ahead markets in 2022 and the intraday markets in 2024.”

This signified a major change, as it enabled more efficient use of transmission capacity across borders, improved market coupling, and fostered better integration of renewable energy sources into the grid. Another milestone was coordinating system operations. “The minimum viable coordination process was another major milestone,” Gheorghe adds. “It’s a steppingstone towards fully regional operation security coordination.”

Unique method

Over time, and with the support of Magnus Energy, Core CRR developed its own working methods. A key focus was empowering people and creating a shared sense of responsibility. “Getting the right experts involved was difficult,” Gheorghe admits. “These specialists are already busy. How could we ensure they took responsibility within this international project?”

The answer was a ‘do-er system’. TSOs whose experts contributed above-average efforts were financially compensated. Core CRR also introduced a Certificate of Appreciation, a non-monetary award recognising key contributors. “We also created a pre-meeting position matrix, now used by other TSO cooperations,” Gheorghe adds. “Plus, we set up a stakeholder management institute. This helps communicate with external parties on behalf of all involved.” 

For Gheorghe, the biggest success wasn’t just technical. “What stands out most is the cultural closeness we built across East and West Europe.”

"Together with Magnus Energy, we developed our own working methods."

Looking ahead

Europe’s electricity markets are evolving fast. The Clean Energy Package, aimed at reducing CO₂ emissions to net zero, has driven major changes. The Ukraine war has added further pressure.  

 How does Gheorghe see the future? “I don’t just go with the flow,” he says. “Europe is too focused on sustainability. We’ve lost sight of affordability. Energy-intensive companies are moving to the US and China because of high costs. I believe more will follow soon if they are forced to use only non-fossil energy. This harms our economy. We need to rebalance affordability and sustainability.”

Looking even further ahead, Gheorghe has strong views. “I am one of those who think a nodal market will be more effective,” he confesses. “But this is for the next generation to decide.”

"We've lost sight of affordability of energy."

Not slowing down

Not that Gheorghe is retiring any time soon: “I still find interesting endeavours ahead, so working in the power industry keeps me plugged in. Working in a pan-European market makes it even more compelling.”

“I loved working with Gheorghe, offering our knowledge, structure and support. I’m just as proud of what we have achieved together in these past seven years.  Along the way it became my goal to bring together West and East European TSOs, supporting people to achieve something Europe needs. The challenge of balancing affordability, sustainability, and security remains. But as Gheorghe’s career shows big steps forward are possible when people work together.” - Alexander van der Mark, Managing Director