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00:00:42Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the main news edition of the
00:00:45day. Parliament voted to postpone the closure of
00:00:48coal-fired power plants despite warnings that Romania risks losing
00:00:51billions of euros from PNR funds. President Nicușor Dan announced
00:00:55that he will return the law.
00:00:58President Mirabela Grădinaru's partner published it amidst a parliamentary scandal
00:01:01over the integrity law adopted with the votes of PSD and AUR, USR
00:01:05threatens to attack the Constitutional Court.
00:01:09The authorities will only try tomorrow to sink the four barges in the Bala branch area
00:01:12to continue the dredging of the old Danube until then, meanwhile the river's flow at
00:01:16the entrance to the country will decrease to 1400 cubic meters per second, a historic
00:01:19minimum.
00:01:22The Russians devastatingly hit Kyiv, where they killed 17 people and injured
00:01:2544 in the deadliest attack in recent months. Donald Trump refuses
00:01:29to send more Patriot missiles
00:01:31to the Ukrainians.
00:01:39Coal-fired power plants can no longer be closed, even at the cost of blocking
00:01:43billions of non-reimbursable euros allocated through the PNR. In the
00:01:46final vote, deputies maintained the Social Democrats' amendment
00:01:50in the decarbonization law, which yesterday generated sharp disputes in the Senate,
00:01:53maintaining the operation of coal-fired power plants, while
00:01:57PSD and AUR insist that the current energy crisis forces Romania to
00:02:00keep production capacities functional. The Minister of European
00:02:04Funds warns that we will lose money, and President
00:02:07Nicușor Dan is considering not promulgating
00:02:09the law. The decarbonization law with the
00:02:13PSD amendment passed with 180 votes for, nine against, and
00:02:1627 abstentions. 80 deputies from PNL and
00:02:20USR did not vote. The amendment stipulates that the law of 2022
00:02:24108, Ordinance 108,
00:02:26cm and will 2022, which actually provided the money for payment
00:02:29request 2, milestone 114, at this moment we are already
00:02:32at imminent risk that payment requests five and six will be blocked
00:02:36until the reversibility is resolved, and
00:02:39the stake now is that we are addressing the
00:02:43president of the country, the penalties. We then had the milestone of about 600
00:02:46million, it can be a sum of a few hundred million.
00:02:50Supported by AUR, PSD invokes the current energy crisis. As yesterday in
00:02:54the Senate, discussions flared up. The PSD
00:02:57amendments, which I ask you
00:03:01to vote for today, state a common sense
00:03:04thing: you cannot close until
00:03:08you put something in its place, and in the current
00:03:11energy crisis it is normal to use
00:03:15all available energy
00:03:17capacities. We are not closing anything, no
00:03:20energy capacity, until we put something in
00:03:24its place.
00:03:26It's useless to swear that he doesn't steal.
00:03:30Pîslaru says he's not closing anything, because they have closed
00:03:33repeatedly. On the other hand, PNL and USR join
00:03:36the government and denounce a competition of populism between PSD and AUR,
00:03:40which can cause significant damage to Romania.
00:03:43We risk losing billions of euros
00:03:47from the PNR. The National Liberal Party
00:03:50did not vote for this bill, and
00:03:54not because they didn't want to vote for it, but because it
00:03:57was substantially modified by
00:04:01some amendments that
00:04:04practically change what Romania has
00:04:07committed to before the European Commission. And they ruined the energy
00:04:11system in Romania because there were years of indifference,
00:04:15of corruption, years in which they mistreated Romanian
00:04:19citizens, and today we are in a crisis that the Social Democratic Party comes with some
00:04:22amendments that it wants to solve,
00:04:25endangering billions of euros. Only
00:04:29the president can still turn the law back. Nicu Șordean announced that he will not
00:04:32promulgate the law in a form that would endanger PNR funds, and
00:04:36the government warns that this is about to happen. Romania committed
00:04:40in 2022 to introduce the decarbonization law
00:04:43of the energy system, which adopts the calendar for the gradual
00:04:47elimination of coal. With a final deadline of 2032.
00:04:51Last year, former minister Bogdan Ivan negotiated with the European Commission and
00:04:55obtained the maintenance of coal-fired power plants that can be activated in times of
00:04:59crisis. The current amendment, argues Dragoș Pâslaru, revisits
00:05:02a reform already finalized and violates
00:05:05the agreement with the European Commission and can lead to
00:05:08very high penalties and the blocking of payment requests five
00:05:13and six, a total of 5 billion euros, non-reimbursable funds, according to
00:05:16the estimates of the Minister of European Investments.
00:05:20Romania's capital enters an energy saving regime.
00:05:24The Bucharest City Hall announces measures to reduce electricity
00:05:27consumption after the government declared a national state of alert due
00:05:31to the decrease in power production. Throughout the month of
00:05:34August, the intensity of public street lighting in Bucharest will be
00:05:38reduced by 30%. I think
00:05:40everyone should be responsible
00:05:43and consider these measures, because it is for the good of all. The
00:05:47best measures are being taken, I have no idea which are the best,
00:05:51but if we have to do this, we do it. Electricity
00:05:54will also be saved at the company that manages
00:05:58public transport in Bucharest. Electric
00:06:00buses will no longer be charged during the critical interval
00:06:04of 19:30 to 23:30. Maintenance
00:06:08and servicing activities will be limited during the same
00:06:11critical interval. And as for the lighting on
00:06:14platforms, as well as in the STB depots, it will be reduced to
00:06:18a minimum. Passengers will not be affected by these
00:06:21measures. The Termoenergetica company will turn off
00:06:23non-essential lighting and will limit the operation of hot water pressure
00:06:27boosting pumps, and the Capital City Hall will turn off
00:06:31the decorative lighting on the building's facade at night, as well as in the institution's
00:06:34courtyard. In the offices, air conditioners will
00:06:38operate at a minimum. Similarly, theaters and museums under
00:06:42the city hall's jurisdiction will follow suit. I think we all need to
00:06:45take measures to get out of this impasse. Currently, in Bucharest,
00:06:49daily consumption is around 1000 MW. The proposed reductions and
00:06:52measures are good, I can't say they don't
00:06:56help, but they don't have a significant impact, it's more of an
00:06:59example than with evident
00:07:03effects that would truly
00:07:06help. And operators of illuminated advertising panels
00:07:09who have contracts with the city hall say they will apply these
00:07:12measures. Authorities are once again appealing to
00:07:16the population to try to consume less electricity, especially
00:07:19in the evening when at peak hours production decreases and
00:07:22imports increase. Even if they managed to save, people will feel the energy
00:07:26crisis in their bills, as the prices set by the ongoing
00:07:29contracts expire, experts warn.
00:07:32I also save, but in the evening I can't,
00:07:36I have to turn on the air conditioning, I can't
00:07:39breathe and I turn it on for half an
00:07:42hour, that's it, the rest of the time I have energy-saving bulbs, I have
00:07:45reduced - the bulbs as much
00:07:49as possible, we sit on the terrace a little more,
00:07:53I turned off the TVs, but not everyone is as willing to
00:07:57save as the executive requested. I won't
00:08:00save electricity, no way, I
00:08:03can't, I don't know how, I need electricity for the washing machine,
00:08:07for the dishwasher, for the gas stove,
00:08:10for ironing, I can't. "If someone wants to save,
00:08:13let them do it from above. I haven't reduced anything, I've always consumed
00:08:17little, because of the money. Even if I
00:08:21save, the energy crisis will still be felt in people's pockets, because
00:08:24the bills they will pay when renewing their electricity
00:08:27contracts will be higher, experts warn. And it's
00:08:30already happening, as contracts expire. Already
00:08:34offers for new contracts or for renewing old contracts are
00:08:37higher than they were in the past. 1.5, 1.6
00:08:41RON per kilowatt. Do you expect bills to be higher? Well, I know
00:08:44they are higher, I'm sure, consumption is higher and
00:08:48the bill will be higher. We have some contracts
00:08:51signed with electricity suppliers, I expect
00:08:55them not to increase. The risk that homes will run out of power as a result of this
00:08:58energy crisis is, however, excluded, energy experts say, even if
00:09:02it will be more difficult for the Romanian state to import the amount of energy it needs for
00:09:05daily consumption. It's possible that we may not be able to import anymore, and we'll run out of
00:09:09electricity. I don't see this as
00:09:13possible, because industrial consumers were almost
00:09:167400 MW, according to
00:09:19Electrica's data, which is a slightly lower consumption than the official
00:09:23estimates of 7600 MW, and this may mean that many
00:09:26Romanians have already heeded the authorities' calls to reduce
00:09:30consumption. However, a primary problem is that domestic production does not cover
00:09:34consumption as it did before the drought. If we look again at yesterday's
00:09:38data, we see a production of about 5300
00:09:41MW, so that at peak hours we had to
00:09:45import 2000 MW, approximately 2000 MW,
00:09:49and today at this hour we see how
00:09:52the data from Transelelectrica looks, real-time
00:09:56data, at 18:30, so a little while
00:09:59ago, we see a consumption of 7200 MW,
00:10:03we see a production of 5500, almost 5600
00:10:06MW, but also this means that we are already importing
00:10:091600 MW, anyway, consumption
00:10:13will clearly increase in the critical interval after 8 PM and will probably reach
00:10:16the usual values of 2000- 2500 MW, which
00:10:20represents, pay attention, a quarter of domestic production. Here appears another
00:10:23major problem, energy.
00:10:25The important imported energy in the evening is several times more expensive than what Romania
00:10:29sells during the day, when we have an energy surplus due to
00:10:33solar panels, but we don't have enough storage
00:10:36capacity. All these problems have a clear impact on the price
00:10:39of energy in Romania, the highest in the European Union, reported to
00:10:43purchasing power.
00:10:46Meanwhile, efforts to maintain reactor 2 at
00:10:50Cernavodă continue, but authorities have postponed the sinking of the
00:10:53four barges loaded with stone in the Bala arm of the Danube until tomorrow,
00:10:57which would divert more water to the nuclear power plant. The decision was
00:11:01announced a short while ago. The plant director stated that there will be no
00:11:05problems in the next seven days, but the forecast for the Danube's
00:11:09flow is grim. A few more days could be gained if the
00:11:12barges are sunk, an operation unprecedented for
00:11:15Romania.
00:11:19The four barges were filled with hundreds of tons of stone, but their sinking did
00:11:22not happen. The postponement was decided after a... prolonged meeting, the unprecedented
00:11:26operation in Romania is risky and the authorities say that the safety
00:11:30of those participating in the mission is a priority. Following
00:11:33the analysis we carried out in this operational
00:11:36meeting, the decision was made that the operation to sink
00:11:40the four barges will continue starting tomorrow. It is by no means
00:11:43an easy operation. They will be placed in that
00:11:47area near the shore, supported by the shore.
00:11:50They will be pushed by
00:11:54the captain towards the shore, these will be anchored both to the shore
00:11:58and to the anchors, the dredging depths will be continued
00:12:01with larger quantities than initially estimated. Reactor 2 of
00:12:04the Cernavodă power plant is operating and the plant director says that the detonation of the rock at
00:12:08the springs was helpful, it led to an increase of 2 cm in the level in the central
00:12:12basin area. A few more days of operation could be gained after the sinking of
00:12:15the barges, which would divert more water to the branch that leads to
00:12:19Cernavodă. The reasons that were unfolded on the Bala
00:12:22river brought a respite
00:12:26so that the level that was scheduled to drop that
00:12:29much dropped much less, which led to a few extra days of
00:12:33operation, we currently have a forecast
00:12:36based on the prognosis that we will still operate for a period of seven
00:12:39days. The Danube will reach a new historic minimum flow of 1400 cubic meters
00:12:43per second at its entry into the country tomorrow. The
00:12:46level of the Danube at Cernavodă is
00:12:48214
00:12:51reach 231 cm on Monday. This.