Iernut gas plant set for commercial operation by end of H1 2027, minister says

Iernut plant on a 2027 timeline

Energy Minister Dumitru Chisăliță visited the Iernut thermal power plant, a combined-cycle gas turbine facility with 430 MW of installed capacity that Romgaz is building as one of its strategic investments. He reviewed progress and remaining measures with Romgaz leadership, covering the company's work as general contractor, its ongoing contracts and General Electric's progress on site. In a Facebook post published on Saturday, 31 October, he said there are solid grounds to expect commercial operation by the end of the first half of 2027. Pre-synchronisation tests with the national energy system (SEN) are being prepared, and synchronisation is expected no later than the first quarter of 2027. The ministry said extra attention is going to remaining works, equipment integration and the testing and commissioning stages. He put the goal simply in the same post.

“Iernut must become a functioning investment as soon as possible, one that produces energy for Romania.”

The plant has a gross energy efficiency of 56.4%, which the ministry says is higher than coal plants and older gas plants. It also has a black start system that lets equipment restart without power from the external grid, which is useful during blackouts. Chisăliță said finishing the project would mean more electricity produced at home, a more flexible national system and less dependence on imports.

Neptun Deep and Black Sea gas

In the Digi24 interview 'În Fața Ta', aired on Saturday from 14:00, Chisăliță said Neptun Deep is largely on schedule to start production around the third quarter of 2027. He described the progress in these terms:

“The works are proceeding according to the schedule, so there are no significant delays.”

He is working on a policy to encourage greater domestic use of Black Sea gas, which still has to clear the Competition Council and other bodies. He noted that suppliers prefer to sell close to home because transport and distribution costs are lower, but they also need local buyers. By his calculations, the added value would be at least 1 to 1.5 whether the gas is sold directly or turned into chemical fertilisers and glass sold as finished products.

Battery storage and the cold season

In the same interview, Chisăliță said storage should be approached as a mix rather than through batteries alone. Batteries mainly handle hourly swings, charging during the day and discharging in the evening, but in the cold season there can be spells of one or two weeks with heavy cloud cover, so other systems that hold energy for several days are needed. He said battery storage grew over the last two years by as much as it had grown across the previous 12 years. He expects a further 20% increase by the end of this year and a doubling of current capacity by 2028, depending on available funds and market interest. He said Romania should have built storage alongside renewable generation around 2014 to 2016, as Bulgaria did.

Electricity and gas prices

Chisăliță said electricity bills are likely to rise in the offers suppliers make, and that offers shown on the energy regulator ANRE website are higher and could become contract prices. He said the changes visible on the ANRE site are somewhere between 10% and 22%, and that non-household consumers are affected at roughly the same level even though public offers look smaller. For household gas, a legal administrative price for gas produced in Romania and sold to suppliers applies until 31 March 2027, so the final household price should be similar to last year's level, he said. Gas prices for non-household customers are rising significantly, and the ministry is working on new compensation schemes for electricity and gas. He also outlined three scenarios for price developments, because prices differ by contract and supplier.