Romania’s energy market today faces an extremely rare situation, namely negative prices at certain intervals on the spot stock market. To be more precise, energy producers pay for the transmission of the energy they produce, which is the opposite of normal.

Why is this happening?

This situation occurs when the production of electricity from renewable sources is very high and the consumption at the national level is very low.

So, on Sunday, the spot market (day-ahead market) has four hours when prices are negative, and another two hours when the price is almost zero, that is, energy is practically free.

For example, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., the energy price is -8.93 lei per MWh, that is, energy producers pay this amount for receiving their energy.

Renewable energy producers prefer to continue to produce electricity and pay for its absorption, since they receive subsidies in the form of green certificates for this production and still come out on top in the end.

According to the publication e-nergia.ro, the first negative prices on the Romanian energy market appeared last summer, and today this is happening for the first time in 2024.

Negative prices on the spot market are not yet reflected in the invoices

For the time being, low or negative prices in the spot market will not be reflected in the accounts because it is only for a few hours.

But the trend is that the share of renewable energy is increasing, and such situations may occur more often, which will also affect the reduction of consumer bills.

This year and next, thousands of MW of solar and wind capacity are preparing to come online in large farms, and the number of prosumers (small producers) is also increasing.

Read also The new boom in the renewable energy market: large companies with photovoltaic panels / Where are they and who is investing

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