The heat wave that hit Romania and the rest of Europe during the past days has pushed up the electricity consumption up to 8,000 MW during the peak hours which resulted in considerably higher price of the electricity traded on the spot (day-ahead) market. The daily average price of the electricity on the DAM jumped for the first time this summer above RON 300 (EUR 63) per MWh, Profit.ro reported.

The average price of electricity delivered on Tuesday, July 2 rose by 7.7% compared to the previous day, reaching almost EUR 65, or RON 303.2 per MWh, an advance of 86.6% a day. The electricity delivered during the peak hours hit RON 396.2 per MWh for the energy supplied on Tuesday 4PM to 5PM.

The previous record this summer was on June 27, when the average daily electricity price on the DAM market was RON 265 lei or EUR 56.1 per MWh.

The hydro power plants increased their output to 3400 MW, contributing the largest part to the domestic output. The coal-fired power plants generated about 1,700 MW while Nucleaelctrica operated at its full capacity (1,400 MW). The gas-fired plants, including the one operated by OMV Petrom at Brazi, produced electricity close to the currently available maximum of 1,200 MW. Solar power generation has reached 750 MW, but the wind farms' output was very small due to the adverse natural circumstances.

Despite the high consumption, with little exceptions, Romania has recently been a net exporter of electricity, which means that the price pressure came from abroad, from Hungary. The other two markets interconnected with Romania, those of Czech Republic and Slovakia, posted prices EUR 20 euro per MWh lower than in Romania and Hungary on Tuesday, after the spread was only EUR 12 on Monday.

editor@romania-insider.com

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