National Energy System has sufficient capacity to fully cover consumption demand

The National Energy System has sufficient capacity to fully cover the consumption demand, in the context of the temporary suspension of the Brazi power plant for two days, the Ministry of Energy announced on Tuesday.According to a press release from the institution, the relevant minister, Bogdan Ivan, had operative discussions with representatives of the Ministry of Environment, OMV Petrom and local authorities to accelerate all necessary procedures. The objective is to resume the water supply in the entire area as quickly as possible and restart the Brazi power plant.The power plant has an installed capacity of 832 MW in on-site electricity production. This capacity can be fully covered by the current availability of the National Energy System, which totals over 19,800 MW, and the security of supply is not affected at any time.In this context, the capacity is covered by the transactions carried out by OMV Petrom on the Intraday Coupled Market, in order to balance its own portfolio. Only a small part comes from the existing availability of the National Energy System.The Ministry of Energy informs that in its approaches to the European Commission regarding the maintenance of coal-fired energy groups, it took into account all possible scenarios."Its own assessments and those of CNTEE Transelectrica SA also included unforeseen situations that may affect the normal functioning of the National Energy System. Today's incident reconfirms the importance of analyzing a wide range of hypotheses in assessing the adequacy of the System", the press release also reads.According to the cited source, Romania currently benefits from multiple sources of stable energy, namely generation capacities in a band: over 6,600 MW of generation capacities in a band from hydropower; over 1,400 MW of generation capacities in a band from nuclear power; over 2,700 MW of generation capacities in a band from hydrocarbons; over 2,700 MW of generation capacities in a band from thermal power.Last but not least, the Ministry of Energy stressed that it is permanently monitoring the functioning of the National Energy System and that it will provide information in the event of any relevant developments.According to data published by Transelectrica, at 4:40 p.m., electricity consumption totaled 8,036 MW, and production 6,448, with the balance being 1,588 MW. Coal-fired generation was 822 MW, hydrocarbon-fired 984 MW, hydro 3,218 MW, nuclear 1,325 MW, wind 16 MW, photovoltaic 1 MW, biomass 70 MW and storage facilities 10 MW.The Brazi power plant, operated by OMV Petrom, was shut down unplanned on Tuesday due to low process water flow and water restrictions, the company announced.The Brazi power plant accounts for approximately 10% of the electricity generated in Romania and has an installed capacity of 860 MW.