In 2022, Romania was a net importer of electricity, which is why it realized a foreign trade deficit of 640 million euros, only in the first 11 months. Most of the electricity was imported from the Bulgarian grid, while the country exported the largest amount to Hungary.
Romanian electricity imports amounted to 7.85 TWh in the period January – November last year, and exports were only 6.54 TWh, according to the latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
This means that in the first 11 months of 2022, Romania was a net importer of electricity, with a negative balance of around 1.3 TWh.
Imports of electricity cost 2.27 billion euros in this period, according to INS, while the value of exports amounted to only 1.63 billion euros. Thus, after 11 months in 2022, the negative energy balance led to a commercial deficit of around 640 million euros.
Based on the above data, it follows that Romanian consumers paid 289 euros per MWh for imported electricity in the period January – November 2022. If we look at exports, Romanian producers received only 249 euros per MWh for the electricity sold.
This is a consequence of the fact that Romania imports in peak consumption intervals, when national production cannot support the country’s consumption, that is, when it is the most expensive. On the other hand, exports were realized off-peak, when electricity is cheaper, that is, in intervals with strong wind production – in both cases, prices were lower.
The largest quantities were exported to Hungary (3.4 TWh, more than half of the total export), where the most money came from, almost 890 million euros.
As for imports, by far the largest volumes came from the Bulgarian grid – 5.11 TWh in the first 11 months, which is about two thirds of the total Romanian imports. Also, the largest part of the money Romanian consumers paid for imported energy went to this neighboring country – 1.46 billion euros, out of a total of 2.27 billion euros.
The national production of electricity in 2022 was 52.7 TWh, but the net consumption, despite a drop of about 8 percent compared to the previous year, was higher than the production – 53.7 TWh, so that throughout the year Romania was net importer of electricity.
