Constitutional Court upholds the prosumer law: offsetting stays, but only up to 200 kW

The law that lets owners of solar panels pay their gas bill with the electricity they send into the grid has narrowly cleared a constitutional hurdle. The Court held that Parliament had not exceeded the limits of reconsideration, so the text could be promulgated. Decision no. 391 of 29 April 2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 594 of 21 July 2026, dismisses as unfounded the constitutional review challenge lodged by the President of Romania. Two days later, the validated text appeared in the Official Gazette of Romania as Law no. 160/2026, which ties surplus electricity to the gas bill.

The story of this law ran for almost three years. The initial version was sent for promulgation on 25 November 2023 and raised to 900 kW the installed capacity threshold below which prosumers escape liability for imbalances in the grid. On 12 December 2023 the President requested reconsideration, relying chiefly on Regulation (EU) 2019/943 on the internal market for electricity, which sets that limit at 400 kW and lowers it to 200 kW for installations commissioned from 1 January 2026.

Parliament reopened the debate, dropped the 900 kW threshold and recalibrated the other thresholds in the law accordingly. Those knock-on adjustments became the very subject of the referral: the President argued that, by amending provisions he had not criticised, Parliament had stepped outside the limits of reconsideration laid down in Article 77 (2) of the Constitution and had acted without constitutional loyalty, since the request for reconsideration had already been used up.

What it changes in practice

The first effect is that the law could be promulgated and published. A ruling upholding the challenge would have sent the text back to Parliament to be brought into line with the Constitution, and the mechanism by which surplus energy wipes out the gas bill would have stayed on hold for another legislative cycle.

The second effect goes straight to prosumers’ pockets. The three-tier scale described by the Court in its reasoning stands: prosumers with an installed capacity between 0 and 200 kW per consumption point benefit from quantitative offsetting, meaning that the energy fed into the grid is deducted from the energy consumed; those with an installed capacity between 200 and 400 kW receive financial settlement at the weighted average price on the day-ahead market; above 400 kW, the ordinary regime applies, with liability for balancing.

The scale of installed capacities is not the only place where it is decided how much a small producer pays to use the grid. From 25 September 2026, an energy community can ask ANRE for an analysis of the costs and benefits that may lead to a reduced distribution tariff, on the quantity consumed inside the community.

The third effect is the most tangible one for households. Individuals with installations of no more than 27 kW per consumption point may opt, for a contractual period of at least 12 months, to have the sums resulting from quantitative offsetting cover either all their electricity supply contracts for the consumption points held with the same supplier, or the natural gas supply contracts concluded with that supplier. The Court noted that the option was introduced precisely because the law offered no real guarantee that suppliers would pay monthly for the surplus fed into the grid, within the 24 month deadline initially provided.

The fourth effect belongs to constitutional law and reaches well beyond the energy sector. The Court confirmed once again that a request for reconsideration granted in part obliges Parliament to align the remaining provisions. Such alignments are not a breach of the limits of reconsideration, they are a condition of the law’s coherence.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

Compared with the version sent for promulgation in 2023, the law validated by the Court looks different on exactly the points that mattered financially. The 900 kW threshold, below which prosumers bore no liability for the imbalances they created in the grid, is gone, and the rule has reverted to 400 kW, the figure in the European regulation. The exemption from the invoicing obligation for prosumers up to 900 kW disappeared as well, which in turn cancelled the amendment to the Fiscal Code: the exemption stays, as before, at 27 kW per consumption point.

Quantitative offsetting, the most favourable mechanism, has been narrowed from 400 kW to 200 kW per consumption point. In exchange, the 200 to 400 kW band received a regime of its own, financial settlement, which had not previously been set apart explicitly. Also new is the right of individuals below 27 kW to choose between paying for electricity and paying for gas out of the same amount.

The wording on who falls under the rules has changed too. The phrase “local public authorities” was replaced with “public authorities and institutions”. The President saw this as an extension of the scope. The Court replied that it is a clarification: prosumer status may be acquired by any final customer, and the category of legal persons covered both local and central authorities in any event. The old text merely created the appearance of a distinction that did not exist.

One detail at the end of the decision is worth noting. The solution was adopted by a majority of votes, not unanimously. The argument about exceeding the limits of reconsideration therefore did not convince the full panel of nine judges.

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