Romania’s net power imports rise as Cernavoda nuclear power plant outages extend

Romania's net power imports were up in October as the Cernavoda nuclear power plant outage was extended to Nov. 1, transparency data showed.

Net imports accounted for around 16.3% of power demand in October so far, compared to 1.7% last year, amid a loss in domestic generation.

The extension is expected to bring cumulative generation losses linked to low Danube levels to 2.76 TWh, considering the plant restarts on Nov. 1, according to Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.

Danube water levels near the plant were last reported at 185 cm on Oct. 26 — about 90 cm below the Danube Commission's minimum acceptable level of 275 cm and 1,015 cm below its maximum acceptable level of 1,200 cm.

Main net imports were recorded from Bulgaria, which amounted to more than 0.5 TWh for October, up on the year from less than 0.1 TWh last year.

Romania also registered higher net power imports from Ukraine, meanwhile, just lower on the year from Hungary.

Romania's front-month power price settled at €261.28/MWh on Oct. 23, up nearly 29% from the start of the month.

The price remained below the equivalent Hungarian contract, which is at €272.28/MWh, up more than 30% over the same period.