In brief

  • When the power system goes into crisis, Transelectrica will be able to buy demand reduction through a daily auction from companies that agree to consume less. The service is called the ancillary service for dispatchable demand flexibility.
  • The minimum bid is 0.5 MW, the price is expressed in lei per MW, and the mechanism can be used for no more than one month for each crisis period.
  • The second order of the day introduces re-designation, a simplified procedure for the power exchanges that renew their mandate as market operator, with the application filed 60 days before expiry and a new mandate of 4 years.
Act: ANRE Orders no. 54 and 55/2026
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 707 and no. 711 of 26 August 2026
In force from: 26 August 2026

The State is now buying quiet on the grid by paying large consumers to use less power in exactly the hours when energy runs short. The National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) published two orders on the same day: no. 54/2026, in Official Gazette of Romania no. 707, which approves the regulation of the dispatchable demand flexibility mechanism, and no. 55/2026, in Official Gazette of Romania no. 711, which changes the rules for designating the electricity market operator. Both continue the series of rules through which the power market is being made ready for the new capacity coming into the system.

The first order answers a simple problem. When generation does not cover consumption, the transmission system operator has two options: bring in more energy, which is not always possible, or cut demand. Until now, cutting demand had no market mechanism of its own outside the balancing market.

The second order is administrative, but the stakes are real: the power exchanges that run the day-ahead market need a valid designation as nominated electricity market operator, known by the European acronym NEMO. Until now, renewal went through the same procedure as the first designation.

Also from the energy market, on 28 August Parliament raised the advance the State pays suppliers, from 40% to 60%.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that a new market appears. The transmission system operator (TSO) buys the service through daily auctions from dispatchable consumers, aggregators and suppliers that take part in the day-ahead market and have signed the framework contract voluntarily.

The second effect is the entry condition. Only final customers whose consumption points have meters that allow remote data transmission are eligible. Those already qualified as balancing service providers and taking part in the balancing services market cannot join.

The third effect concerns the moment of activation. The mechanism starts only in crisis situations: a national shortage of resources, a regional or European crisis, long spells of frost or heatwave, storms and floods that knock out significant capacity for more than 3 days, the long-term unavailability of interconnection lines, or other situations identified by the National Power Dispatch Centre.

The fourth effect is the limit on duration. The mechanism may be used only for as long as strictly necessary, and for no more than one month. A new period requires a new assessment.

The fifth effect is the daily auction calendar. The operator publishes the volume it needs two days before the delivery day, at 10:00 Central European Time (CET). Bids are submitted until 9:00 on the day before delivery. The list of selected participants is published by 13:00, and the list of activated bids by 16:00.

The sixth effect is the form of the bid. Each bid is a price-quantity pair, with the price expressed in lei per MW, a positive number with two decimals, and the minimum quantity that can be offered is 0.5 MW. Bids are ranked in ascending order of price, and the operator selects them in that merit order until the required volume is covered.

The seventh effect is the physical check. The promised reduction is compared with the consumption actually metered on the delivery day. If the sum of the metered consumption is lower than or equal to the reference consumption minus the reduction undertaken, the participant is paid at the price in its own bid. If not, it receives nothing.

The eighth effect requires suppliers and aggregators to hold written contracts with final customers setting out the conditions for participation, how activation works, the rights and obligations of the parties, how flexibility is verified and, explicitly, how the financial benefit reaches the final customer.

The ninth effect is the cost. What the transmission system operator spends on buying this service is recognised as a cost in calculating the tariff for the purchase of ancillary services, which means it ends up in everyone’s bill.

Another network cost is now divided by the quarter hour instead of once a year: the additional losses on the 110 kV network are allocated at every 15-minute settlement interval, and the amount charged to generators enters the distribution tariff.

The tenth effect comes from the second order. A power exchange that already holds a mandate as nominated operator files the re-designation application at least 60 days before expiry, together with declarations on its own responsibility about any changes that have occurred, and the new mandate is granted for 4 years.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The first change is that demand reduction becomes a product with a price. Until now, dispatchable demand could be cut through operational instructions, not bought on a market from whoever offers it cheapest.

The second change is a safety net against sham bids. The operator checks whether the power offered for reduction is backed by what the participant actually buys on the day-ahead market, through the condition that the bid must not exceed the reference value. Anyone bidding more than they normally consume does not pass the filter.

The third change is the transparency duty on the transmission system operator, which has to draw up through public consultation and then publish the implementing procedure, the framework contract and the format of the bids, within 3 months of the publication of the regulation.

The fourth change comes from Order no. 55/2026 and concerns the filing window. Operators that do not hold a designation in force may file an application only between 1 June and 31 August of each year. The previous wording of Article 9(1) has been replaced with this one.

The fifth change is the re-designation procedure itself, ten new articles, from Article 12^1 to Article 12^10. The rules in Articles 9 to 12, those for the first designation, no longer apply to operators renewing their mandate.

The sixth change concerns the renewal file. Instead of the full dossier, the operator submits declarations on its own responsibility: that nothing has changed compared with the initial documentation or, if something has, the updated versions of the documents with an indication of what changed; that the agreements on the allocation of cross-zonal capacity are in force and that it has acceded to them; and, where it uses the services of another nominated operator, that the contract in question is valid.

What does not change is the substantive test. For re-designation, the operator must hold the licence for administering organised electricity markets and must continue to meet, cumulatively, the criteria in Article 6(1) of the European regulation on capacity allocation and congestion management.

Advantages and disadvantages

What it improves

  • Flexible industrial consumers can be paid for something that until now was only a restriction imposed administratively.
  • The mechanism has a time limit, one month at most, so it cannot turn into a permanent rationing regime.
  • Verification is done on metered consumption, not on declarations, and whoever does not actually cut demand is not paid.
  • The contracts between suppliers and final customers have to state explicitly how the money reaches the customer, not just the aggregator.
  • Re-designation of the power exchanges becomes a short procedure based on declarations, instead of a full dossier rebuilt for every mandate.
  • The auction calendar is fixed and public, with an announced hour for each step, so participants can organise their bidding.

What remains a problem

  • The cost of the service goes into the tariff for the purchase of ancillary services, so every consumer pays it, not only those who benefit from the added security of supply.
  • The regulation leaves essential elements to the transmission system operator: the method for determining the required volume, the trading intervals and the operational workflow.
  • Three months for publishing the implementing procedure means the mechanism cannot be used before the end of November 2026.
  • The binary payment rule, all or nothing, punishes an overshoot of one kilowatt exactly as harshly as one of several megawatts.
  • The reference consumption is defined in two places with different calculation windows, and payment depends on it.
  • The single filing window, 1 June to 31 August, can leave a new operator waiting almost a year before it can even apply for designation.

Practical advice

  1. If you run an industrial load that can be cut temporarily, first check whether your consumption points have remotely read meters. Without them you are not eligible.
  2. You cannot take part at the same time in the balancing services market as a qualified provider and in this mechanism. Choose one.
  3. Sign the framework contract with the transmission system operator in good time. Without it you cannot bid, and the contract has to set the minimum and maximum quantity that can be offered in each interval.
  4. Work out your bid starting from what you normally buy on the day-ahead market. Bids that exceed the reference value are not selected.
  5. Remember the minimum quantity: 0.5 MW per trading interval. Below that threshold the bid is not valid.
  6. Watch 10:00 two days before delivery, when the required volume is published, and 9:00 on the previous day, when the bidding gate closes.
  7. If you are a final customer inside an aggregator’s portfolio, ask for the contract clause that says exactly how the financial benefit is calculated and how it is passed on to you. The regulation makes it compulsory.
  8. If you run a power exchange with a NEMO mandate, put the 60-day deadline before expiry in your calendar. After that moment only the initial designation procedure is left.
  9. For re-designation, prepare in advance the proof that the agreements on the allocation of cross-zonal capacity are in force. A declaration on your own responsibility and an undertaking to keep them in place are required.

Frequently asked questions

What is dispatchable demand flexibility?
An ancillary service through which a large consumer agrees to reduce the power it draws during a given interval, and the transmission system operator pays it for doing so, at the price in its own bid.
Who can take part?
Dispatchable electricity demand, aggregators and suppliers that take part in the day-ahead market and have signed the framework contract. Final customers must have meters with remote data transmission.
When is the mechanism activated?
Only in crisis situations: a shortage of resources at national, regional or European level, prolonged frost or heatwave, extreme weather that puts capacity out of service for more than 3 days, the unavailability of interconnection lines, or other situations identified by the National Power Dispatch Centre.
How long can it last?
One month at most for each period. Restarting it requires a fresh assessment.
What is the minimum quantity that can be offered?
0.5 MW. The price is expressed in lei per MW, as a positive number with two decimals.
How is it checked whether I cut my consumption?
The metering operator works out the reference consumption from the last 5 working days and compares it with the consumption metered on the delivery day. If the reduction took place, payment follows; if not, nothing is paid.
Who bears the cost?
What the transmission system operator spends is recognised as a cost in calculating the tariff for the purchase of ancillary services, a tariff that shows up in electricity bills.
What is a NEMO?
The nominated electricity market operator, that is, the entity authorised to run the single day-ahead and intraday coupling of markets, under the European rules.
What does re-designation mean?
The simplified procedure through which an operator that already holds a mandate renews it, with the application filed at least 60 days before expiry and with declarations on its own responsibility instead of the full dossier. The new mandate runs for 4 years.

Errors and inconsistencies in the published text

  • ANRE Order no. 54/2026, annex, Article 32(a): circular cross-reference. The text says that the metering operator selects the data recorded „pentru fiecare interval de tranzacționare pe care participantul la piață i le-a notificat conform art. 32”, for each trading interval notified to it by the market participant under Article 32, which is the very article the sentence sits in. The duty to notify the intervals and the consumption points is set out in Article 31(1). As written, the cross-reference leads nowhere.
  • ANRE Order no. 54/2026, annex, Article 35: reference to the wrong article. The text requires the metering operator to send „datele istorice pentru cele 5 zile lucrătoare anterioare prevăzute la art. 31”, the historical data for the previous 5 working days provided for in Article 31. Article 31 sets no five-day window at all; that window is defined in Article 32(a) and (b). The historical data are the basis of the settlement calculation in Article 36, so the wrong reference falls on the very step the payment depends on.
  • ANRE Order no. 54/2026, annex, Article 32(a) against Article 34: two different windows for the reference consumption. The metering operator calculates the reference consumption over the „ultimele 5 zile lucrătoare considerate zile de livrare, încheiate înainte de ziua D”, the last 5 working days treated as delivery days and ended before day D. The transmission system operator calculates the average reference consumption, denoted Vpod_ref, over the „ultimele 5 zile lucrătoare, considerate zile de livrare, încheiate înainte de ziua D-1”, ended before day D-1. The definition in Article 5(p) says only „ultimele 5 zile lucrătoare”, the last 5 working days, without settling the matter. The two windows differ by one day, and Article 36(1) settles on the basis of the second, so the difference decides whether a participant is paid or not.

Editorial analysis

Order no. 54/2026 brings to Romania a tool that has existed for years in western markets: instead of generating more when the system is under pressure, the operator buys less consumption. The construction is a serious one. The filter comparing the bid with what the participant actually buys on the day-ahead market blocks fabricated offers, and verification on the meter, with payment only if the reduction really happened, moves the risk onto the bidder. The one-month limit per crisis period is a prudent choice as well: it stops an emergency instrument from turning into permanent rationing.

Three things, however, remain to be sorted out. The first is that the regulation delegates to the transmission system operator precisely the part that decides how much the mechanism costs: the method for determining the required volume, the trading intervals and the operational workflow are all set through the operator’s own procedure, to be published within 3 months. Until the end of November 2026 the mechanism stays on paper, and winter arrives sooner than that.

The second is the payment rule. Article 36(1) is binary: if the sum of the metered consumption exceeds the reference consumption minus the reduction undertaken by any amount at all, the participant receives nothing for the entire validated quantity. An industrial consumer cannot guarantee a load profile to the kilowatt a day in advance, and the price of a small error is the total loss of the payment. A tolerance band or a proportional payment would make the mechanism more attractive without weakening the check.

The third is the definition of the reference consumption, which appears in three places, in wordings that do not overlap. When the same term decides the payment, it cannot be left with two calculation windows.

Order no. 55/2026 is simpler and, in substance, sound. Re-designation through declarations on the operator’s own responsibility, with the duty to show what has changed compared with the initial dossier, is a reasonable simplification for a market with few operators. It is worth noting, however, that the filing window for the first designation remains a single one each year, between 1 June and 31 August, while re-designation can be requested at any time, 60 days before expiry. A new operator that misses August waits until the following summer, which raises a barrier to entry that the act does not justify.

What should be changed

  • A tolerance band or a proportional settlement in Article 36(1). It would replace the all-or-nothing rule, which discourages participation by exactly those large consumers with a variable load profile, that is, the ones from whom real flexibility can be obtained.
  • A single definition of the reference consumption, with the window written down once. It would remove the one-day gap between Article 32 and Article 34 and would make the settlement calculation verifiable by the participant, not only by the operator.
  • Correcting the cross-references in Article 32(a) and Article 35. Both fall on the chain that determines the reference consumption, that is, on the step that decides the payment.
  • A shorter deadline for the implementing procedure, or its publication together with the regulation. Three months means the tool cannot be used in the first part of the cold season, even though the crises it targets happen precisely then.
  • A price cap or a reference mechanism for bids into the flexibility service. The cost goes into the tariff paid by every consumer, and the regulation sets no upper limit on an acceptable price.
  • Opening up the filing window for the first NEMO designation. A single month a year for a new operator, against a permanent option to renew for those already in place, favours the incumbents for no reason visible in the text.

Original text of the legal act

The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.

The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania

Official Gazette of Romania no. 707 and no. 711 of 26 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 136 KB the act starts on page 12

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The other editions cited: nr. 711/2026

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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.