Romania extended its energy state of emergency by 30 days on 28 October because available power and energy reserves may be insufficient during peak-demand periods. Nuclear outages are tightening supply ahead of winter.
The Energy Ministry and National Energy Dispatch Centre prepared a winter programme covering 1 November 2026 to 31 March 2027. Units 1 and 2 at the Cernavodă nuclear plant remain shut down, tightening the power balance.
Unit 1 is scheduled for a major life-extension outage from 2027 to 2030, which would remove around 700 MW for an extended period. New Units 3 and 4 remain at the preparation stage.
Romania can increase output from available plants, import power or reduce consumption to respond to tight supply, but each option has a price. Household electricity prices rose 51.6% year on year in the first half of 2026 in national-currency terms, the largest increase in the EU.
The winter challenge is both security of supply and the cost of balancing the power system. Romania is adding solar and storage and expects much more domestic gas from 2027, while the near-term system must bridge periods of low nuclear availability and high winter demand.
Interconnection, flexible gas generation, storage and demand response are becoming increasingly central to Romania’s market. Its key winter vulnerability is coincident scarcity, with nuclear outages, cold-weather demand and tight regional imports occurring at the same time.
