Until we increase our installed capacity, we cannot talk about a competitive energy price or the competitiveness of the Romanian industry, says George Niculescu, president of ANRE, at the “Romania’s Green Momentum” conference, organised by Energynomics.
ANRE has analyzed the challenges that the energy system has gone through in recent times, says Niculescu, and Romania remains the last in Europe in terms of installed kW per capita, with 1.24 kW, more precisely almost half of the EU average of 2.60 kW, claims George Niculescu.
“We went through a situation in which the energy system was once again subjected to challenges. And I want to tell you that at the ANRE level, we did an analysis this summer, to see how we compare with other EU states and our neighbors – an indicator that no one has used before kW per capita. We talk and make comparisons with other member states all the time: Income per capita, expenditure per capita. This comparison has never been made, kW installed per capita. I want to tell you that from the analyses that we had available from Eurostat, in 2024, Romania was in penultimate place, with 1.10 kW installed per capita. This was followed, because we are talking about Green Momentum, in the years 2024, 2025 and the first part of 2026, by a large number of MW that were installed and connected to the networks. We announced at the end of July that in the first 7 months we licensed 1,635 MW. Then, kW per capita, obviously, increased. And I want to tell you that on July 31 we are at 1.24 kW installed per capita”, emphasized the head of ANRE.
He says that Romania is currently below the European average of 2.60 kW installed per capita, while Bulgaria has 2.51 kW, Germany has 3.19 kW, and Spain – 2.80 kW.
“We are still in penultimate place. We must not hide, but call things by their names. When we have a consumption that jumps by 7,000 MW, we think that we have to import and whether, will, the transport networks and interconnections cope with the imports? Until we increase our installed capacity, we cannot talk about a competitive price of energy”, stated George Niculescu.
“Without talking about a competitive energy price, we cannot talk about increasing the competitiveness of the Romanian economy. So all these things are linked. Then, I think that in the coming period the investment pace must continue”, he added.
Romania’s real-time energy consumption at midday on September 9, 2026 is around 6,050 MW – 6,085 MW, while domestic production covers approximately 4,380 MW – 4,400 MW. This major difference means that Romania is experiencing a deficit and massively imports energy (over 1,600 MW) to ensure system stability.
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