Romania’s energy regulator ANRE has approved authorisations covering 593.5 MW of new capacity at its Sept. 22 meeting. The package included storage and additional renewable generation, alongside commercial-operation licences for separate capacity.
The authorisation package comprised 132.65 MW of co-located storage and 394.57 MW of standalone batteries, bringing the storage component to about 527.2 MW. It also included 66.25 MW of photovoltaic capacity within the same approvals.
In parallel, ANRE granted commercial-operation licences covering 239.2 MW. The licensed portfolio included 185.4 MW of solar, 49.8 MW of wind and 4 MW of standalone storage.
Storage approvals amid volatile prices and import dependence
The battery approvals are described as increasingly significant for Romania’s power market as solar and wind additions expand rapidly. The country is also experiencing extreme price volatility and periods of heavy import dependence.
Batteries are positioned to charge during low-price renewable hours and discharge when electricity becomes scarce. Romania has seen electricity prices fall close to zero during solar-heavy periods before rising above €200-300/MWh later in the day.
The approvals coincide with both Cernavodă nuclear reactors remaining unavailable and hydro conditions being weak. Batteries cannot replace weeks of lost nuclear generation, but they can reduce exposure to the most expensive import hours and provide balancing services as renewable penetration rises.
Shift from renewable build-out to flexibility capacity
The regulatory developments reflect a change in the focus of Romania’s investment cycle. The first cycle centred on adding solar and wind megawatts, while the next stage increasingly targets storage capacity to make those megawatts usable when the system needs them.
A single approval round clearing about 527 MW of batteries is cited as showing how quickly that shift is progressing.