Romania’s Energy Ministry has proposed ending mandatory forward electricity-trading requirements on December 31, 2027, while retaining the current quotas until then. The draft amendment, dated November 4, would give producers and suppliers time-limited obligations and could affect the volumes traded on organised contract markets and available for long-term hedging.
Quotas remain in place through 2027
Under the draft, qualifying electricity producers would still have to trade at least 50% of annual output through organised markets, excluding day-ahead, intraday and balancing platforms. Suppliers would continue to cover at least 30% of customer requirements through their own production or eligible forward purchases.
The proposal would make the obligations expire at the end of 2027 rather than remove them immediately. It preserves exemptions from the producer requirement for facilities operating exclusively on wind, solar, micro-hydro or high-efficiency cogeneration.
Volumes committed under contracts signed before the ordinance takes effect would be accounted for in calculating mandatory shares, a provision intended to reduce the risk of disrupting existing sales agreements.
Direct household supply could count
Electricity generated by a producer and supplied directly to household customers could count toward its 50% requirement. The draft recognises that wholesale sales are not the only outlet for a producer’s output, a provision relevant to integrated companies that also serve retail customers.
Hidroelectrica, Romania’s largest electricity producer and an important retail supplier, reported 9,328 GWh of net generation in the first nine months of 2026. Its sales to final customers reached 6,739 GWh, while wholesale-market sales totalled 4,288 GWh across venues in the same period.
The figures illustrate why a requirement measured by wholesale-market volumes may not fully reflect the exposure of a producer supplying its own retail customers.
Market liquidity and hedging remain open questions
Romania’s forward-trading requirements were designed to support market depth and reduce reliance on short-term price formation. Their scheduled expiry could affect OPCOM’s organised contract markets, the volumes available to independent retailers and the transparency of long-dated prices.
Ending mandatory trading would not necessarily reduce total hedging. Companies could continue forward trading voluntarily to protect earnings, secure cash flow or meet lender requirements, while traders would need to assess whether supply shifts towards bilateral contracts or internal generation-retail allocations.
A narrower range of exchange-listed forward products could raise the cost of building hedges and increase the importance of counterparty credit limits, collateral and settlement terms, particularly for buyers without their own generation.
Cross-border effects could extend to Hungary and neighbouring Southeast European markets through portfolios that combine Romanian forward contracts with HUPX and other exchanges. The scale cannot yet be quantified and will depend on trading behaviour, not only the draft’s wording.
The proposal remains subject to approval. Producers, retailers and financial intermediaries will need to assess the final exemptions, contract-accounting treatment and potential effects on market liquidity before changing procurement strategies.