EditRomania’s energy crisis exposes years of delays
With the power grid under ‘operational stress’, experts warn that Romania must rapidly expand storage, renewables and grid capacity
Romania’s energy system has entered a state of alert after years of delays in modernising the electricity grid, replacing coal-fired capacity and diversifying energy production. With extreme heat and drought putting additional pressure on the system, experts warn that authorities have less than a year to address some of the most urgent vulnerabilities before the summer of 2027.
Since 1 August, Transelectrica, the company responsible for the security of Romania’s national electricity system, has been operating under what it describes as ‘operational stress’ and is relying, among other measures, on consumers’ solidarity.
The situation is not a surprise, according to energy experts, who have repeatedly warned about the consequences of delayed investment in energy security.
One of the main problems is the limited ability of Romania’s electricity grid to absorb power from producers, despite significant European funding available for network investments, energy expert Otilia Nuțu told Romanian investigative outlet PressOne.
‘We need smarter networks, capable of managing many more producers, consumers and those who are both,’ Nuțu said, arguing that this is the direction in which the energy system is heading.
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A system built for a different era
Romania’s electricity consumption has changed substantially since many of the country’s major power plants were built. Demand is increasingly concentrated around cities, with households and smaller businesses accounting for a growing share of consumption.
‘You need to rethink the architecture of the system entirely,’ Nuțu said.
Romania also needs more small-scale generation distributed across different areas and located closer to consumers, she argued. At the same time, the energy mix must become more diverse.
That means combining technologies, including ‘solar with wind and storage’, allowing electricity to be supplied during evening hours when demand is high and generation elsewhere in the system is limited.
The need for flexibility is also highlighted by Alexandru Ciocan, a researcher at the Energy Policy Group (EPG), who has argued that energy security is no longer simply a question of how much conventional electricity a country can produce.
Instead, system stability increasingly depends on flexibility, diversification, interconnection, the integration of renewable energy and the ability to manage fluctuations in production and consumption in real time.
Romania’s own Energy Strategy 2025-2035 similarly identifies diversification of the energy mix, transmission and distribution capacity and cybersecurity as key elements of the resilience of the national electricity system.
But, as the current crisis illustrates, the plans have often remained on paper.
Almost 4 GW from prosumers
The rapid growth of renewable generation has also exposed the limitations of the existing grid.
According to official data published by Romania’s energy regulator ANRE, prosumers (entities that are both producers and consumers) had added approximately 3,897 MW of installed capacity to the national electricity system through 346,194 grid-connected consumption points by mid-2026.
The problem is that the network cannot absorb all of this generation.
Nuțu argues that grid investment has been one of the major obstacles for potential investors, alongside years of delays in expanding and modernising transmission and distribution infrastructure.
At the same time, the government’s decision-making framework has repeatedly changed, leaving projects delayed or stuck in administrative procedures.
A particularly pressing issue is storage. According to Nuțu, authorities should identify storage projects already under development or in the permitting process and accelerate their approval, since such projects can be completed within months or, at most, one to two years.
The state should also review the large number of projects seeking technical connection permits, prioritise those that can actually be implemented and remove projects that are no longer viable, freeing network capacity for new investments.
Coal remains at the centre of the problem
The crisis has also reignited a debate over Romania’s transition away from coal.
Only days after the energy alert was declared, parliament adopted amendments to the legislation governing the decarbonisation of the energy sector, backed by the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).
Under the amendment, coal-fired lignite and hard-coal plants would be shut down gradually, only after one or more similar energy production capacities have been installed, connected to the grid and commercially commissioned.
The changes, adopted less than a month before the deadline for implementing projects financed through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, put around €5 billion in EU grants at risk, according to the PressOne report.
Nuțu also warned that Romania risks losing funding from the Modernisation Fund allocated to Complexul Energetic Oltenia. The company was allocated €895 million to build photovoltaic parks and gas-fired plants, projects that have not been completed.
The expert said the amendments undermine commitments Romania made several years ago.
‘We are turning back on things we committed to years ago, after spending money, and saying that we have changed our minds. It does not work like that,’ Nuțu said.
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Stuck in the past
Dumitru Chisăliță, president of the Intelligent Energy Association, has described Romania’s failure to replace coal capacity as a major policy failure: the country committed to closing coal plants, secured European funding for replacement capacity and established companies and management structures, but did not build the new plants.
For Nuțu, coal is not the solution to Romania’s current energy problems.
‘For 30 years we have been putting money into coal,’ she said, noting that since 2020 alone, the Romanian state has provided around €1 billion in subsidies to Complexul Energetic Oltenia.
She also points to what she describes as a circular problem: coal plants cannot be closed because nothing has been built to replace them, while new investors struggle to enter the market because existing coal capacity occupies the available network capacity.
‘How do we do this?’ she asked, describing the dilemma facing a potential investor seeking to build a 700 MW plant in Gorj. Transelectrica may say that it cannot accept the new generation because the network is already being used by coal producers.
What needs to change before summer 2027
The immediate priority should be to make better use of existing projects, accelerate storage and strengthen the grid where investments can deliver results quickly, Nuțu said.
Authorities should also examine why investors can wait up to two years to receive a connection permit from Transelectrica. Such delays should help identify where reinforcement of the transmission network is most urgently needed.
Transelectrica and ANRE should work together to determine which grid investments are necessary, while distribution operators should also be involved. Smart metering will be increasingly important as the volume of electricity consumption data grows.
The authorities also need to plan for rising electricity demand as electric heating and electric vehicles become more widespread, reducing reliance on gas and oil.
‘You have to look at what demand will look like in 20 or 30 years,’ Nuțu said, pointing out that infrastructure investments such as transmission lines can remain in service for decades.
For her, the final obstacle is the dominance of state-owned companies in the Romanian energy market. Around 70-80% of electricity generation is managed by companies controlled by the Energy Ministry, she said, raising questions about how new private investors can compete.
The changes, Nuțu argues, will come only ‘when the National Energy Regulatory Authority and the Competition Council find the courage to do their jobs’.
Until then, Romania risks entering another summer with the same structural weaknesses that have brought its electricity system under pressure today.
The original article in Romanian by EUalive’s partner PressOne.ro can be found here.
Caption: Power lines near the Power Plant Commercial Company Bucharest (ELCEN), in Bucharest, Romania, 7 August 2026. Romania on 5 August registered an electricity demand peak for the summer, despite a call from the government that citizens, public institutions, and commercial enterprises voluntarily cut electricity consumption between 9 PM–11 PM. Heatwave conditions combined with low water levels on the Danube River are hampering domestic hydropower and thermal cooling capabilities. On 31 July, the government declared a nationwide state of alert for 30 days to manage the impact of electricity shortfalls. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT
Updated: August 10, 2026 - 05:25
