Hydro forecasts indicate that it is excluded that reactors 1 and 2 at Cernavodă will be opened in the next 10 days, the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Energy, Cristian Bușoi, stated on Monday evening, on a television station.

“The forecasts closest to reality, in fact for 10 days – of course there are also forecasts for a longer term – but for the next 10 days, indeed, it seems unlikely, even excluded, that we will be able to reopen Unit 2 at Cernavodă”, he claimed.

He says that Group 4 Rovinari brings almost 300 megawatts to the National Energy System, given that we estimate that the peak of evening energy consumption reaches almost 7,000 megawatts.

“Starting today, as we are talking about a week that is still expected to have high temperatures, and therefore electricity consumption – both in the domestic area, thanks to air conditioning, and in the industrial area, some industrial activities are resuming – higher consumption, almost 7,000 megawatts, we estimate the peak for this evening, in order to reduce the amount of imported electricity and thus the impact on future prices, it was decided to put Reserve Group 4 from Rovinari into operation. There are almost 300 megawatts that will enter the National Energy System and this will be helpful, on the one hand, to strengthen the security of supply and, as I was saying, to reduce the amount of imported electricity, especially during peak hours, thus generating a reduction in the impact on costs”, said Bușoi, on Digi TV.

According to the Secretary of State, the energy situation was stable over the weekend, consumption peaks were below 6,000 megawatts – on Sunday evening even below 5,000 megawatts – and imports were not very high.

“We also had good electricity production from the wind area, because, as most Romanians could see, there were a few days – Friday, Saturday, Sunday – when the wind blew and this, beyond perhaps some inconveniences, for the energy system, for electricity production, was of great help. Photovoltaic production was also very good, but as you well know, unfortunately we can only rely on photovoltaics to a small extent for peak hours, because our storage capacities are low”, said Cristian Bușoi.

The ministry representative added that consumption is seen to be 200-300 megawatts lower during peak hours than Transelectrica’s forecasts showed, some coming from household consumers “who responded to the call of the Prime Minister and the Government”, and the rest from industrial consumers.

“We receive various addresses every day in which, indeed, large consumers are looking for and partially finding solutions to reorient their activity during peak hours and even to schedule repair actions, overhauls in these last two weeks of August. We are doing this centralization. In parallel, of course, Transelectrica and the distributors and suppliers, because all of this is found in contract amendments or at least in notifications regarding the reduction in the amount of electricity they need in the coming period, are doing their own analyses. We are already seeing between 200 and 300 megawatts less consumption during peak hours than Transelectrica’s forecasts”, explained Bușoi.

Returning to Group 4 Rovinari, he stated that coal stocks are sufficient for this week, but they can be replenished if necessary, and assured that there are no problems with personnel and specialists, even if “for a small number of them it was necessary to call on experienced people, but who had meanwhile decided to retire”.

“From the information we have from our colleagues at the Oltenia Energy Complex, at least for this week we are covered by coal stocks. Obviously they can be restored if necessary. (in how long they can be restored – n. r.) is something that we will know exactly at tomorrow’s command, when we will discuss a little about the outlook for the coming weeks. Unfortunately, it seems that the drought continues, the Danube flow remains low and we will remain with Units 1 and 2 closed for the coming period, therefore we must make a judicious organization of the reserves we have because, although the regional situation is stable, although there is electricity for imports, although we do not see any alarming price increases, but obviously the prices for imports are higher than those for domestic production, we still have to be careful on the reserves side”, the ME official said.