Romania has approved more than 527 MW of battery storage capacity in a single regulatory round, as authorisations shift toward flexibility. At its meeting on Sept. 22, the energy regulator ANRE approved authorisations covering 593.5 MW of new capacity. The package included both co-located storage and standalone batteries.
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. In parallel, ANRE granted commercial-operation licences covering 239.2 MW, including 185.4 MW of solar, 49.8 MW of wind and 4 MW of standalone storage.
Batteries amid volatile prices and import dependence
The scale of the battery approvals is increasingly significant for Romania’s power market. Solar and wind additions are expanding rapidly, while the country is also experiencing extreme price volatility and periods of heavy import dependence. This conditions a commercial case for batteries that can charge during low-price renewable hours and discharge when electricity becomes scarce.
Romania has recently seen electricity prices fall close to zero during solar-heavy periods before rising above €200-300/MWh later in the day. The resulting intraday spreads provide a stronger revenue signal for storage than annual average wholesale prices. The approvals come while both Cernavodă nuclear reactors remain unavailable and hydro conditions are 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. Romania’s earlier renewable investment cycle focused on adding solar and wind megawatts, while the next phase increasingly involves adding enough storage to make those megawatts usable when the system needs them.