Energy crisis in Romania

By Constantin Radut
The year 2021 is proving to be disastrous in terms of energy. In the last two months, the energy capacities in operation do not cope with the internal consumption. During the sunny days of July and August, our country bought every hour between 7.00 and 20.00 over 1000 MW. There were a few days when the installed capacities operated with only 8000 MW. Winter is approaching and the situation will be even worse.
Romania imports massive amounts of electricity from neighboring states. The national energy system is completely deregulated, poorly managed and without a short or medium-term strategy.
In the last 15 years, the country’s energy capacity has decreased by over 10,000 MW, and no new MW has been added to the installed capacity. The Iernut gas-fired power plant, with an installed capacity of over 400 MW, owned by Romgaz, has a delay of more than two years from the date set for the connection to the national energy system.
Today, the National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) announced the power installed in the electricity production capacities in Romania. Compared to last year, the installed capacity decreased by almost 1200 MW. Hydroelectric power, whose capacities were built in the proportion of 99% in the previous regime, came to have almost 34% of the total energy capacity (amounting to 19,583 MW), with about 2% more than last year. In second place is coal with an installed capacity of 4142 MW, ie 21.2% of the total. It should be mentioned that the date announced by ANRE has only a theoretical value. In fact, in the last 10-15 years, coal-fired thermal energy has never exceeded 2000-2300 MW. This is due to outdated, dysfunctional, and, for the most part, “frozen” institutions.
The new renewable energies – wind, photovoltaic, biomass – represent, according to ANRE, over 23% of the country’s energy capacities, ie in approximately 4600 MW. In reality, the capacity of the new renewable energy industry does not exceed 1000-1500 MW. Today, when the sun shone on the entire territory of Romania, the photovoltaic installations operated at only a quarter of their capacity, and the wind ones at… 10%. No proper wind speeds were recorded, so thousands of MW of wind turbines were resting. As they did most of the summer.
In the face of this critical situation, the Government must immediately review its energy policy. First of all, it is necessary for the fetish of renewable energy to disappear from the country’s energy mix. From hydro energy, Romania already covers the target set by the bureaucracy in Brussels, of 34% green energy for 2030.
From here you have to start. Not from the Greenpeace lobby and other organizations that want to destabilize the economy. We have at least three large non-profit organizations in the country that campaign to increase production capacity in the renewable energy system. All represent the mercantile interests of foreign manufacturers. Because in Romania we don’t even produce a paddle for wind turbines.