Romania has a significant energy deficit in the evening, between 19:00hrs and 23:00hrs, which it is covering from imports, but there is also significant pressure on this segment because the entire region has an energy deficit of over 4,000 megawatts, interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said on Monday at the end of a meeting with the main energy consumers.
He added that the flows on the Danube are the lowest in the last 40 years and were standing today at about 1,450 cubic meters/sec, and the trend is decreasing, so that in the second half of this week estimated flows of about 1,400 cubic meters / sec will be reached.
Given the circumstances, Bolojan said that following the decrease in flows both on the Danube and in the other hydrographic basins, the production capacities on hydroelectric plants are limited.
"Think that only at the Iron Gates we lost about 2,000 megawatts. Also, nuclear energy production capacities are also greatly reduced. The neighbouring country, Hungary, has reduced three of its four nuclear power plants. Only one group works partially and from 2,000 megawatts, there is a minimum of 1,750 megawatts. We are in a situation where we had to close a group at Cernavoda nuclear power plant and there is a deficit of 550 megawatts. We therefore have a production deficit in the region of over 4,000 megawatts, which generates an energy deficit in the countries in our region - Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova. We are in a situation where, in the evening, between 19:00hrs and 23:00hrs, we have a significant energy deficit that we cover from imports. The estimated consumption on these days is over 7,000 megawatts in one day, 7,500 - 7,600, with a reduction in consumption of less than 7,000 megawatts in the days at the end of the week, as we had on Saturday or Sunday. In these situations, we import over 2,000 - 2,500 megawatts daily," said Bolojan, who is also interim energy minister.
For comparison, Hungary imports 4,500 megawatts, and Moldova 500 megawatts.
"So, also in terms of import pressure, in the evening there is an important pressure that we have to cover. Drought-related difficulties are amplified in our region as a result of limited cross-border connections with Central and Western Europe. One of the important topics in the previous months was to develop these cross-border capacities, to have agreements with Hungary and Austria to increase the capacity of these networks so that, in such periods, we can ensure imports from the Central European area, which we are still doing today, because the main imports come from there or from the south-eastern area of Europe," Bolojan said.
He added that, internally, the authorities have adopted measures on several levels, starting at maximum capacity the energy capacities and gas plants in large cities, and in the field of storage, the necessary authorisations have been granted, so that over 400 megawatts will come into operation.
"We have started all the energy capacities that are in operation in Romania at maximum capacity, the gas plants in the big cities. We have entered the production of photovoltaics to the fullest, we have authorised everything that could be authorised in terms of storage, so that it can come into operation as soon as possible, over 400 megawatts have been authorised in the last 20 days alone. So, in terms of internal capacities, we did everything we could to have a maximum production."
According to him, an important objective is to keep Cernavoda Group 2 in operation, and each day gained with this group in operation means over 650 megawatts, i.e. almost 10% of Romania's energy production, with very valuable production in the evening, which stabilises the energy system.
Due to the low flow of the Danube, Unit 1 of the Cernavoda NPP was stopped on July 28. The two units of the Cernavoda plant have a capacity of 700 MWe each and cover approximately 20% of the total production with dispatchable units in Romania.
At the end of last week, authorities declared a state of alert at national level in Romania for August as a result of a decrease in power generation due to drought and low flows on rivers and on the Danube River.
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