By a Decision adopted on Thursday, the Grindeanu government created the legislative framework allowing Transelectrica to introduce restrictions on energy exports (available capacities, notified exchanges) and to gradually limit the electricity consumption.

In the Ministry of Energy press release, it is stated that the Decision is “a preventive and temporary measure that may be applied only under the conditions of a crisis on the energy market in the next period (January 16th to February 15th, 2017) and only if the public safety or the safety of the National Power System is threatened”.

The Minister of Energy Toma Petcu presented in the Government meeting on Thursday an analysis upon the functioning of the national energy system (SEN), after six days of heavy winter, marked by historical consumptions of natural gas and electricity. The analysis included weather forecasts for the next period and the evolution of the fuel stocks, as well as a notice from the transmission and system operator, Transelectrica, upon the imminent appearance of a crisis in the functioning of SEN. The arguments from Transelectrica were:

• the meteorological forecasts, which indicate a new period of severe weather in the next weeks (January 17th-20th, 2017)
• the electricity deficit recorded due to lower level of the Danube, reaching its minimum flow rate, unprecedented in the recent years, about 1.800 cm/s.
• decreased reserves of water in the major hydropower reservoirs, due to their use for balancing the system
• significant electricity deficit in the South-Eastern Europe because of the cold wave that swept the region since January 6th, 2017
• high consumptions of natural gas (average of 70 million cubic meters/day) and electricity (over 9.500 MW at the consumption peaks from Monday, January 9th, and a maximum of 9.730 MW on January 6th)
• impairment of the sources of electricity produced from renewable sources, particularly wind farms
• power supply hampered by difficulties in coal transportation
• the impact of the malfunctions upon the production capacity of some energy groups

The government decided to adopt a series of safety measures on the electricity market, through which Transelectrica, as the transmission and system operator for electricity, can implement, only in a crisis situation, gradual safety measures, accordingly with the level of risk, such as:

• Switching the power stations to alternative fuel (fuel oil) for the safe operation of both the electric power transmission network and the transmission network of natural gas. The measure would apply strictly in the case in which Romania would register a deficit of natural gas.
• The reduction/cancellation of the available interconnection capacity in the export direction. This measure would apply where, although the export capacity is available, the resources would be limited and might not be able to ensure the consumption needs of the population. This would not affect previous trade programs of the operators, but would prevent any additional exports.
• The notified reduction/cancellation of the exchanges in the export direction. The measure is meant to protect people from the risk of interruption of the power supply and would require intervention by the operator of transmission and system upon the transactions engaged for export of electricity.
• Gradually limiting the electricity consumption. The limitation would not affect the population, but it will only apply in the industrial zone, by restricting the consumption to a technological minimum power.

“The decision adopted today can be understood in just one way: the need for a legal framework to which to appeal only when the population and the system integrity could be in danger,” said the Minister of Energy Toma Petcu. “All countries that respects the population places its safety before any profit margin. Adoption this decision does not mean at all that it will be immediately applied, but it would be a plan B that we can address if the situation requires it”, explained Toma Petcu.

The Decision was adopted under Law 123/2012, art. 24, which transposes into the Romanian legislation the European Directive 2009/72/EC. Article 42 of the Directive provides that in the case of a sudden crisis in the energy market, which may threaten the safety or security of persons, apparatus, installations and system integrity, a Member State may temporarily take the necessary safeguard measures.