The shortage of specialists and connecting to the power grid are two challenges Romania faces in building data centers, according to Radu Tărău, CEO of EnergoBit Control Systems. “The major problem is the shortage of specialists, or rather, the fact that specialists are concentrated in the same area without new ones being trained,” Tărău said, at the DigitALL 2026 conference organized by Energynomics in Bucharest.

He noted, however, that Romania could have an opportunity in this area, thanks to the European context. Specifically, Frankfurt is at a standstill in terms of data centers until 2030, not due to a lack of capital, but because of limited electricity capacity. Dublin is facing the same situation. In Germany, Oracle canceled a €3 billion investment, and Amazon has postponed its plans. These bottlenecks are opening up a market that Romania, along with other countries, is trying to capture.

Romania’s starting point, however, is uneven. Installed capacity in data centers in Romania is approximately 80 MW, compared to over 4,000 MW in Germany—a gap of about 60 times—even though the GDP difference between the two economies is approximately 12 times. Tărău estimates that there is room in the grid for 1–2 GW of new capacity, given the country’s energy mix: nuclear power at Cernavodă, hydropower, and the ongoing development of solar, wind, and battery energy storage systems (BESS).

However, there are two structural vulnerabilities that are limiting the pace of growth. The first is the speed of implementation: solar, wind, and BESS projects are progressing slowly, and Bulgaria, for example, has been more pragmatic in attracting such investments. A relevant technical indicator is the average power outage duration, which in Romania is approximately 240 minutes per year, compared to under 120 minutes in Western Europe, a critical factor for data center operators.

The second vulnerability is the shortage of energy specialists. Romania has trained engineers familiar with the National Energy System, but this human capital is not being replenished by new generations. Tărău notes that a data center requires dual expertise: both in understanding the electrical grid and in the specific functionality of data infrastructure, including SCADA communications and integrated management.

“A 100-MW data center will consume as much energy as half of Cluj. As an energy engineer, I view a data center as a power plant where, in addition to the functionality of the equipment, we have to deal with the complexity of communications to the operators’ SCADA systems,” he added.

Added to this is a logistical constraint: the delivery of a power transformer currently takes between one and two years. Furthermore, the choice of location for a data center must take into account the network capacity at that specific point, not the geographical location. Romania is competing with other countries for the market left open by the Western blockade, and the window of opportunity is limited in time, Tarău added.

The DigitALL 2026 conference was organized by Energynomics, with the support of our partners: CBRE Romania, Eaton Electric, EnergoBit, KSTAR New Energy, WALDEVAR Energy, and WTW Romania.