Romania’s National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) has approved a new market mechanism that allows consumers to get paid for reducing electricity use during certain periods of peak demand. Although the scheme is being introduced amid lower power generation due to heatwaves and drought, ANRE insists it is not intended solely for crises and that it is strictly voluntary.
Under the regulation on the consumption flexibility service, eligible consumers – directly or through suppliers and aggregators – can be remunerated for the temporary and voluntary reduction of electricity consumption, according to a press release from ANRE.
In the first stage, the mechanism will involve large consumers such as factories, retail chains, logistics operators, and office buildings, but it could also include households in the future.
ANRE President George Niculescu said the mechanism gives consumers the option to decide that, within a certain interval and at a certain price, it is more advantageous to reduce consumption and be paid for that flexibility.
“Until now, we have been accustomed to looking at system balancing primarily from a production perspective: if we need more energy, we increase production,” he said.
Niculescu also stressed that the mechanism is not designed exclusively for crises.
The consumption flexibility service introduces a new way to balance the system
Voluntary consumption reduction could help reduce the need for expensive balancing resources, including imports.
The scheme will be implemented through auctions, with eligible consumers, suppliers or aggregators bidding the amount of consumption they are willing to reduce and their requested remuneration.
The auctions will be organized by Transelectrica, Romania’s transmission system operator, which will also determine periods when consumption reduction is necessary.
Spain has had a similar scheme in place since 2022
Romania is not the only country in the European Union to incentivize large consumers to cut electricity use in this way. According to Profit.ro, Spain has had a similar scheme in place since 2022.
The highest remuneration to date, at EUR 211.52 per MWh, was recorded on August 11, the portal wrote.
Struggling to restart the Cernavodă nuclear plant
Romania’s power generation remains under pressure amid heatwaves and drought. The country’s only nuclear power plant, Cernavodă, has been offline since August 13 due to lack of cooling water for its reactors. The facility, which normally produces about 20% of Romania’s electricity, uses water from the Danube to cool its reactors.
Since the complete shutdown of Cernavodă, the country has reactivated two coal-fired units – at the Rovinari and Paroșeni thermal power plants, according to Romanian media. It has also requested a postponement of the planned shutdown of unit 5 at the Turceni coal power plant, slated for August 31.
Romania has restarted two coal-fired units to boost power output
Moreover, Transelectrica has been authorized to limit power supply to large industrial consumers and to curb or cancel electricity exports if necessary.
The latest in a series of Romania’s attempts to raise the Danube level and restart the nuclear power plant involves building an aqueduct to divert water towards the intake for Cernavodă’s cooling systems, the government has announced.
