“Once the engines stopped in the Romanian economy, many companies stopped or reduced operations, thus causing a decline in electricity consumption. The energy consumption is now balanced with production. We are now at 1,800 to 2,000 megawatts less than at the same time last year, which is exactly the amount of power we imported back then. This is a 22% decline overall, industrial consumption went down, and household consumption went up,” Getica 95 owner Viorel Tudose said on ZF Live.
The closure of a number of companies due the pandemic led to a decline in industrial power consumption and an increase in household power consumption. Industrial consumption used to account for 78% to 80% of total electricity consumption before this crisis, and households accounted for the rest. Industrial power consumption is now down to 70’% to 72% and household consumption up to 28% to 30%.
“Getica 95 delivered 271,000 megawatts into the national energy system in January and 251,000 megawatts in February considering the month was 29 days long. In March, the number was down to 250,000 megawatts and in April only 203,000 compared with 271,000. Considering Getica 95 has an 8% market share, this is a 25% decline, but we have many industrial consumers,” Viorel Tudose says.
Getica 95’s owner believes that Romania’s national grid company Transelectrica reacted very well and fast by shutting down some electricity generation facilities depending on how things go.
“Seeing a decline in consumption, Transelectrica ordered capacities that could be shut down and generate power at a higher cost to be shut down such as Complexul Energetic Oltenia.”
As for industrial consumption, the military ordinance that suspended the operations of the hospitality industry led to rather significant decline, considering this particular sector accounted or some 6% of Romania’s electricity consumption. Malls account for a similar percentage of consumption.
“On May 4, we will see an about 5% to 7% rise compared with April 30. I don’t think the economy will not restart overnight as if nothing happened. Investors will be rather reluctant. This crisis that affects us all I think will make people more reluctant.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)