The Brazi power plant was restarted on Friday morning after two and a half days of downtime and has begun injecting 300 megawatts into the National Energy System, Energy Minister Bogdan Ivan announced on Friday.
'I want to announce that after a two and a half day pause the Brazi plant has been restarted and is beginning to inject 300 megawatts into the National Energy System. I want to reassure everyone watching us now that Romania is safe, we have enough energy for our domestic market. During this period what we could not produce at this gas-fired plant we compensated with coal-fired plants at the Oltenia Energy Complex. I would like to thank in particular the president of the county council, Virgil Nanu, who together with the local authorities made it possible for us from the first day we anticipated we would reach this situation to continue to have water for cooling both for the Petrobrazi refinery, which currently provides 35% of Romania's petroleum products, and for starting the gas-fired plant. I also want to thank OMV Petrom for their professionalism and for being in direct contact from the first moment this situation arose, as they are a very serious partner for the Energy Ministry and for Romania,' Ivan said.
According to the minister the Brazi refinery currently produces between 10% and 15% of Romania's electricity consumption.
'We are safe and in the period ahead we are prepared to avoid such situations in which gas-fired plants are stopped. I take this opportunity to thank, in addition to the leadership of Petrom, all the people who have worked during this period, the engineers and specialists, to ensure that the plant was restarted safely as quickly as possible. The Brazi refinery produces today, depending on consumption, between 10% and 15% of Romania's electricity consumption. In this crisis period we have seen how important the gas-fired plants in our country are and also the coal-fired plants, which we have managed to keep operating following negotiations with the European Commission,' the minister stressed.
The Brazi power plant operated by OMV Petrom was shut down unexpectedly on Tuesday due to the low flow of process water and water restrictions, the company announced.
'We confirm that the Brazi power plant was shut down unexpectedly due to the low flow of process water and water restrictions, factors outside the company's control. As legally required the outage was reported to REMIT and the notification will be updated as the situation evolves,' the company said.
Tens of thousands of people in several localities in Prahova and Dambovita counties were left without drinking water following works at the Paltinu reservoir.
The minister of the environment, Diana Buzoianu, recently announced that the supply of drinking water to the affected localities will resume on Monday, 8 December.
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