Romania-Bulgaria electricity arbitrage

On 1 August 2026, Romanian MP Claudiu Năsui claimed that Bulgaria purchases cheap daytime electricity from Romania, stores it in its extensive battery capacity, and resells it at higher night‑time rates. He highlighted the stark storage disparity – Romania about 599 MW (≈1,130 MWh) versus Bulgaria over 3.3 GW (≈8.6 GWh) – and cited fiscal and bureaucratic obstacles that limit Romanian prosumers from doing the same.

A few days later, Romanian industry groups and officials responded with policy proposals aimed at closing the gap. The Association of Prosumers and Energy Communities urged a zero‑VAT rate for new photovoltaic and battery installations, modelling Germany’s 2023 scheme, and estimated the measure could attract €614 million and add roughly 768 MW of PV and 1.54 GWh of storage. The push comes as Romania’s day‑ahead price surged to about €178/MWh due to heat‑driven demand, low hydro, reduced nuclear output, and the shutdown of Cernavodă Unit 1. Officials reiterated that expanding domestic storage could mitigate the arbitrage advantage Bulgaria enjoys. A new prosumer law (Law 160/2026) also changed compensation rules to encourage distributed generation and address the storage shortfall that hampers Romania’s energy security.