Romania’s electricity market moved towards a stronger domestic supply position during the first half of 2026, as consumption declined while generation increased, supported by substantial gains in hydroelectric and solar output.
Electricity consumption reached 24.11 TWh between January and June, down 3.3% year on year, according to the National Institute for Statistics.
Industrial demand proved comparatively resilient, declining only 0.6% to 18.61 TWh.
Household consumption fell much more sharply, dropping 11.8% to 5.31 TWh, while electricity used for public lighting declined 4.6% to approximately 191.3 GWh.
Generation moved in the opposite direction. Romanian power production increased 5.2% to 26.23 TWh, improving the system’s underlying supply-demand balance.
The strongest increase came from hydropower, where production rose 17.9% to 7.5 TWh.
Solar production, including prosumers, registered an even larger percentage increase, climbing 42.1% to 3.26 TWh. Wind generation increased 9% to 3.27 TWh.
Those gains more than compensated for weaker conventional production in several segments.
Thermal generation declined 5.9% to 7.68 TWh, while electricity production at the Cernavoda nuclear plant fell 11.7% to 4.53 TWh.
Cross-border volumes reflected the stronger domestic generation environment. Romanian electricity exports rose 11.4% to 7.69 TWh, while imports fell 9.8% to 8.46 TWh.
Romania therefore remained a net importer over the six-month period, but the gap between imports and exports narrowed materially as renewable and hydro production strengthened.
The composition of the change is important for the regional market. Romania is one of southeast Europe’s largest electricity systems and a key transit market between Bulgaria, Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova. Higher Romanian renewable output can consequently influence price formation and cross-border flows well beyond the domestic market.
Primary-energy production moved differently from electricity generation. The source reports total primary energy-resource production of 7,929.6 million tonnes of oil equivalent, down 2.6% year on year. It reports coal production at 742.3 million tonnes of oil equivalent, a decline of 17.9%; oil at 1,160.7 million tonnes, down 7.2%; and natural gas at 3,710.3 million tonnes, down 0.6%.
The first-half figures therefore show an electricity system increasingly supported by hydro, wind and particularly solar generation while underlying domestic electricity consumption remains below 2025 levels.
