Romanian state-owned energy grid operator Transelectrica posts 27% profit increase in Q1 2026
Transelectrica (BVB: TEL), the operator of the national energy system, reported a net profit of RON 201 million in the first quarter of 2026, 27% higher than in the same period last year. Operational revenues increased by 23%, to RON 721 million, while operational costs rose by only 18%, to RON 430 million.
According to the company’s quarterly report, the increase in operational revenues was mainly influenced by the positive evolution of revenues from interconnection capacity allocation, revenues from regulated tariffs (+11%), and occasional revenues from emergency aid.
Revenues from transmission and other energy market revenues increased by RON 131 million, from RON 576 million in Q1 2025 to RON 707 million in Q1 2026, mainly influenced by the increase, starting January 1, 2026, of the transmission service tariff approved by ANRE, which led to an increase in regulated tariff revenues of RON 55 million (+11%) compared to the same period last year, under similar transported energy volumes.
The increase in operational expenses, including depreciation, was mainly influenced by higher system operation costs and other related expenses. Within operational expenses, the largest impact came from technological own consumption, which in January–March 2026 amounted to RON 216 million, 37% higher compared to January–March 2025.
Romania’s net electricity production increased by 9% in Q1 2026, to 13.7 TWh, while net consumption stagnated, recording the same value as in the same period last year, of 13.9 TWh. Consequently, the net import balance decreased by 85%, to 0.2 TWh.
Physical cross-border export exchanges increased by 56% in Q1 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, while imports decreased by 4% compared to the same period last year. “Compared to Q1 2025, there was a 15% decrease in import commercial exchanges and a 13% increase in export commercial exchanges, amid lower domestic electricity consumption in the national energy system compared to the same period last year (February and March),” Transelectrica stated.
“In January–March 2026, emergency aid revenues of RON 13.4 million were recorded, compared to RON 0.3 million recorded in the same period of 2025. At the request of neighboring transmission and system operators, in Q1 2026 emergency aid was provided to Ukraine (January, March), the Republic of Moldova (January, February), and Serbia (January), to ensure the energy needed to cover domestic consumption in these countries, amid armed conflicts on Ukrainian territory and accidental outages of generation units in neighboring countries,” the report also stated.
Ukraine significantly reduced its emergency electricity purchases from Romania last year, despite ongoing attacks from Russia. Among the reasons for the reduction in requests from Ukraine were also higher electricity prices in Romania, which led Ukrenergo (the Ukrainian counterpart of Transelectrica) to request emergency aid primarily from other neighboring countries.
(Photo source: Transelectrica on Facebook)
