Romania sees no major power supply problems after full Cernavodă nuclear shutdown

Romania has sufficient domestic generation and import capacity to compensate for the shutdown of reactor 2 at the Cernavodă nuclear power plant, with authorities expecting no major problems in meeting electricity demand this week, the Ministry of Energy said.

The comment regards electricity availability and not the prices, which are expected to increase at the end-user level to reflect the costly imports and production currently carried out.

The assessment followed an Energy Command meeting on August 18, coordinated by Energy Ministry state secretary Cristian Bușoi at the National Energy Dispatcher, Economedia.ro reported. Officials reviewed electricity production and consumption, the outlook for the next 10 days, weather conditions and potential risks to the national energy system.

Available generation capacities are currently operating at high levels and are compensating for the loss of reactor 2, according to the ministry. Coal-fired generation has provided additional support, with Group 4 at Rovinari and the reserve group at Paroșeni returning to operation.

Romania's nuclear generation capacity has been reduced to zero after both reactors at Cernavodă, each with an installed capacity of 680 MW, became unavailable amid low water levels on the Danube, which affect the cooling system.

The government has responded by bringing additional thermal generation capacity online and monitoring available import capacity. Energy officials have also noted that household and industrial consumers have reduced peak-hour demand compared with earlier forecasts.

(Photo source: Nuclearelectrica)