Ukraine halts electricity exports to Romania

The halt in Ukraine's electricity exports to Romania has an insignificant impact on Romania's electricity supply, because the imports are of maximum 20 Mwatts, Director of the Transelectrica National Energy Dispatcher Octavian Lohan told Agerpres on Monday.

'Romania's electricity imports from Ukraine are very small; there are traders importing up to 20 Mwatts and does so occasionally. Likewise, the imported electricity is sometimes forwarded to other countries and Romania is just a transit place. Electricity is bought in Romania if the price is very small. Ukraine has other electricity export priorities than Romania. So, the impact of the halt in Ukraine's electricity exports to Romania is insignificant and it does not affect in the least electricity supply in Romania,' said Lohan.

Ukraine on Monday announced having halted electricity exports to three European Union member states - Romania, Hungary and Slovakia - for at least one month as a result of deficiencies in coal stocking.

Spokesman for Ukraine's Energy Ministry Fent Di said that the halt in electricity exports, which might last until April 1, was the result of the fact that no Ukrainian company came up with energy sales offerings because of a currently deficient coal stocking.

Fent Di mentioned that there is no buyer of last resort to guarantee the export volume, but the energy that used to come from Ukraine was but a small amount of the electricity markets of the three EU member states.

Kyiv Post reports that Ukraine exported 1,288.9 million kWh worth of electricity to Slovakia, 1,159.7 million kWh to Hungary, 997.9 million kWh to Belarus and 201.5 million kWh to Poland in the first eleven months of 2009. Smaller exports went to Romania (33.5 million kWh) and Moldova (6.1 million kWh).