Huge electricity prices in the market even at peak consumption times, when we have no input from renewables. If necessary, it is massively imported

If on days when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, the electricity market is relaxed, the prices being low, even negative, and Romania being a net exporter of electricity, things look completely different when we do not have the contribution of renewables. As can be seen today, April 25, in the conditions of a slightly higher consumption than the average of the last weeks – about 7,000 MWh, the production does not keep up at all, with only 4,800 MW available in the morning hours. Coal and gas thermal power plants, which were almost driven out of the market by the competition of renewables anyway, cannot increase production too much, so we are left with water and the Cernavodă Power Plant – nuclear. So, as can be seen from the Transelectrica production/consumption diagram, at 10:00 in the morning, we had to import 2,200 MW, which represents a very large figure, being 40% of all local production.

As of this morning, this was the energy deficit needed to cover consumption, energy that had to be imported. The problem is that, at those hours, the “desperation” of the local energy market to cover its consumption caused the price to rise to 200 euros/MWh, i.e. 1,000 lei, at 08.00. The price drops a bit until 12.00, when we have the maximum of imports, but they still remain at over 130 euros/MWh. Prices remain at 70-80 euros/MWh at lunchtime, then rise again in the evening, during the second consumption peak, to 150 euros/MWh.

Practically, we import massively fixed during the time slots with the highest price, a situation that is exactly the opposite of when we are net exporters, that is, when we have a large supply of renewables. As Economedia also reported, when we had zero domestic prices, even negative, against the backdrop of high production in photovoltaics, we massively exported this cheap energy. When we don’t have renewables, we massively import expensive energy.

We sell cheap and buy expensive, this is, for the moment, the profile of the Romanian electricity market. Each time, the partners are, by and large, the same – Hungary and Bulgaria, countries connected to Romania in the energy markets.

The energy produced from wind and solar plants is the cheapest because it is subsidized by all consumers, through the system of “green” certificates. It is sought both internally and externally. As domestic consumption, especially industrial consumption, is on the ground, and factories can’t stay on the PZU, the opportunity market anyway, because it’s not a predictable energy, usually this energy flows externally. But when we need it, we import an expensive energy from outside, most likely produced in thermal power plants.