Minister Burduja: No risk for Romanians to be left without gas or electricity supplies

The assessment of energy production capacities and of consumption coverage during this frosty spell has shown that there is no risk for Romanians to be left without gas or electricity supplies, Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja declared on Tuesday at the end of a Winter Command meeting."We called a Winter Command meeting today to assess the state of the National Power System, the condition of the networks, the possible issues in the field, also the electricity output, the way we cover consumption, and the area of gas, storage, production imports and exports. (...) Let me thank right from the very beginning my colleagues who are on the ground in these harsh conditions and who have made efforts to keep weather-caused disruptions at a minimum. Practically, on both the transmission network and the distribution network, including on the medium voltage lines, there is currently no failure, despite the frost and snow episode. We have also proceeded to an assessment of the production capacities, of the way in which we cover a consumption that is still estimated to be quite high, considering that the weather remains cold and that according to incoming forecasts, the frost spell will probably last until February 24, so we still have a week to go through this period. Let me emphasize very clearly for everyone that there is no risk for the Romanians to be left without gas or electricity. Of course, with the exception of occasional breakdowns that can happen and are understandable. But from the perspective of the energy system's adequacy, from the perspective of gas supplies, deposits, plus what we have from import-export deals, there is no risk whatsoever," Burduja explained.He stressed that the gas amount in storage facilities is currently at 1.37 billion normal cubic meters, the filling rate being 37%, and that there will be no problem to cover domestic consumption."From the discussions we had, we concluded that the withdrawal capacity during this period will remain around 16-17 million, so that, with what we produce - which is somewhere around 24 million, plus what we take out from storage every day 16-17 (million cubic meters), plus what we import, we will have absolutely no problem covering domestic consumption," the energy minister said.He mentioned that last year, Romania's total gas consumption was somewhere around 9.9 billion normal cubic meters, and net imports from January 1 to the end of 2024 amounted to 5 million normal cubic meters, "accounting for 0.0006% of the country's consumption"."This practically means gas energy independence. And I say it again: the fact that we have become the largest gas producer in the European Union, the fact that we cover a huge chunk - as we see of over 99.9% of last year's consumption - from domestic gas production means that we can rest assured that we have energy security in the gas area," Burduja stressed.He also indicated that coal makes an important contribution to the National Energy System, and that wind power plants will also feed significant amounts in the power grid in the coming period.