In brief
- Transelectrica may apply the safety measures on the electricity market until 30 September 2026, extended by this decision.
- The reason written into the act: the uncertain prospects of restarting Units 1 and 2 at Cernavodă, because the unfavourable hydrological conditions are persisting.
- It is the second extension of this kind on the same day, alongside the extension of the state of alert until 28 September.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial) no. 724 of 28 August 2026
In force from: 28 August 2026
The Government extends by a month the transmission operator’s power to take safety measures on the electricity market, and the reason written into the act is that nobody knows when both reactors at Cernavodă will restart. Government Decision no. 684/2026, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 724 of 28 August 2026, moves to 30 September 2026 the deadline by which the National Electricity Transmission Company „Transelectrica”, as transmission and system operator, may apply the measures in Government Decision no. 603/2026. It is the second emergency energy act of the same day, after the nationwide state of alert was extended until 28 September.
The decision has two articles and one page. The first extends the period, the second says that the provisions of Article 2 of the original decision apply accordingly during the extended period as well.
What is tucked away in the preamble matters more than the operative part. The act invokes „perspectivele incerte de repornire a Unităților 1 și 2 CNE Cernavodă ca urmare a menținerii condițiilor hidrologice nefavorabile”, the uncertain prospects of restarting Units 1 and 2 of the Cernavodă nuclear plant because the unfavourable hydrological conditions are persisting. It is the first time an act in this series speaks of both units of the plant at once.
What it changes in practice
The first effect is one of calendar. Without this decision, the safety measures in Government Decision no. 603/2026 would have expired, and the transmission operator would have been left without the legal instrument through which it intervenes on the market in situations of imbalance.
The second effect is continuity of the regime. Article 2 says that the provisions of Article 2 of Government Decision no. 603/2026 apply accordingly during the extension, so the conditions, limits and reporting obligations of the original act stay the same. Nothing is added and nothing is taken away.
The third effect is one of signal. The preamble ties the extension to the state of the two nuclear units and to the Risk Preparedness Plan in the electricity sector, invoking point 4.2.1 of the annex to Government Decision no. 582/2026. The safety measures are no longer treated as a one-off intervention but as part of applying the risk plan.
The fourth effect concerns the legal basis. The decision rests on Article 5(4) to (6) of Law no. 123/2012 on electricity and natural gas, that is, on the Government’s power to take measures in situations that put the security of supply at risk, not on a power to regulate the market.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
What has changed is not the content of the measures but only how long they may be applied. The act does not amend Government Decision no. 603/2026; it extends the window in which the transmission operator may use it.
The reasoning has changed, however. Earlier acts in this series invoked the level of the Danube and the pressure on reactor cooling. Here the uncertainty of restarting two units appears explicitly, which means the problem is no longer only one of water supply but one of generating capacity that is actually unavailable.
The classification has changed too. Through the reference to point 4.2.1 of the annex to Government Decision no. 582/2026, the extension is formally placed inside the Risk Preparedness Plan adopted in July 2026, rather than outside it.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- The transmission operator is not left without a legal instrument at a time when the system is under pressure.
- The applicable regime does not change while it is being applied: the conditions of the original act remain valid, so market participants know what to expect.
- The extension fits formally inside the Risk Preparedness Plan, so the intervention has a framework and is not ad hoc.
- The preamble states openly what the cause is, the unavailability of the two units at Cernavodă, instead of settling for general formulas about drought.
What remains a problem
- The decision says nothing about what happens if the situation persists after 30 September 2026, even though this is the second consecutive extension.
- It contains no indicator showing when the measures might be lifted earlier.
- The deadline stops on 30 September, while the state of alert extended the same day runs to 28 September: two instruments for the same crisis expire two days apart, with nothing in the text connecting them.
- The public does not learn from the act what measures Transelectrica can actually take, because they are in the June decision, to which this act merely refers.
Practical advice
- Electricity market participants: the applicable rules remain those in Government Decision no. 603/2026. This act does not change them, it only extends the period in which they may be applied.
- Industrial consumers with dispatchable demand: reducing consumption remains one of the routes the system can use during the extended period. Check whether you can join the flexibility mechanism opened by ANRE.
- Note the date of 30 September 2026. If the unavailability at Cernavodă continues, a third extension will be published around that date.
- No obligation arises from this decision for households. It concerns the transmission operator and market participants.
- Anyone following the subject should also read the original decision, no. 603/2026: the concrete measures are there, not in the act extending them.
Frequently asked questions
What measures can Transelectrica take?
Until when does it apply?
What has it got to do with Cernavodă?
Is it connected to the state of alert?
When does it enter into force?
Editorial analysis
The act does something necessary and does it minimally. The safety measures were expiring, the cause that produced them had not gone away, and a one-month extension keeps the instrument without changing the rules mid-game. For an act of one page and two articles, it is hard to ask for more.
What does not show when you read the decision from start to finish appears when you set it beside the other acts of the same day. On 28 August 2026 three interventions on the energy market were published: the extension of the state of alert until 28 September, by CNSU Decision no. 21/2026; the extension of the safety measures until 30 September, by this act; and the increase to 60% of the advance settled to suppliers, by Law no. 179/2026. Three acts, three different calendars, none of them mentioning the others. The two crisis deadlines, 28 and 30 September, are two days apart for no reason visible in the text.
The second observation is about what the preamble says and the operative part does not. The CNSU decision of the same day describes the adequacy of the system through generation by source, with figures: coal at a maximum of 1,200 MW, wind between 200 and 800 MW, photovoltaic declining. None of those figures includes nuclear, and this act explains why: Units 1 and 2 at Cernavodă have uncertain prospects of restarting. Put together, the two acts say that the system is going into September without the country’s most stable baseload source, but neither of them says it on its own.
The third concerns repetition. This is the second consecutive extension of the same set of measures, and the act contains no indicator, no condition and no threshold at which they might be lifted earlier or would have to be extended again. An act of one page cannot carry a strategy, but it can carry a figure.
What should be changed
- A common deadline for the two crisis instruments. The state of alert and the safety measures cover the same situation and should expire on the same day, so that the reassessment is done once, on the same set of data.
- A condition for lifting them, not just an expiry date. For example, at least one of the Cernavodă units returning to service, or a reserve threshold being reached at the evening peak.
- Publication of the status of the two units at Cernavodă. The preamble invokes the uncertainty of their restart as the reason for the extension, but does not say since when they have been down, nor what exactly is being awaited.
- An express reference to the measures in the original decision. An act that extends the application of another one should summarise them, so that the reader is not forced to hunt down a June decision to find out what is being extended.
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. 724 of 28 August 2026 16 pages PDF, 120 KB the act starts on page 15
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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.