Hydropower has saved Romania from an energy system collapse in the past 24 hours, following the incident at the Paltinu Dam and the shutdown of the Brazi Power Plant, precisely at the moment when both wind and solar generation disappeared entirely from the national electricity mix, maintains the president of the Intelligent Energy Association (AEI), Dumitru Chisalita.
"This is the reality that is being ignored at the highest levels of the state, while the completion of hydropower plants is delayed or blocked and officials obsessively repeat that 'it is better to build photovoltaic parks than to finish hydropower plants'. This episode is a stark warning: without hydro, the country might have been plunged into darkness. And if the existing projects remain blocked, next time we may not be as lucky. This is no longer a matter of debate. It is about Romania's energy security and the safety of its citizens. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge this becomes part of the problem," AEI said in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday.
According to the association, in Moldavia alone the consequences of blocking or delaying hydrotechnical developments would affect around 500 localities, leaving almost 400,000 people directly without water, creating a risk of injuries or fatalities, threatening thousands of homes with potential destruction, and increasing net energy imports (existing hydropower plants could reduce imports by roughly 25% based on 2024 figures).
Chisalita also stressed that each Romanian is effectively required "to pay around RON 160 to demolish these hydropower plants, after each Romanian has already paid around RON 120 for their construction".
In addition, the AEI head noted the obligation to pay 3-5% more for electricity as a result of "imbalances that cannot be eliminated without the operation of these hydropower plants".
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