The government on Friday adopted a legal framework for the Transelectrica S.A. national electricity transmission corporation, through the National Energy Dispatcher, to be able to order, until August 31, a series of safety measures if developments in the National Power Grid requires them.

The measures could be taken during the time interval when there is a shortage of electricity, in the following order of priority: increasing the technological reserves of systems in production facilities that can run on alternative fuels, in order to use them; starting groups in technical reserve at the disposal of the National Energy Dispatch; reducing/cancelling export interconnections; reducing/cancelling notified exports; time slotting electricity consumption between 19:00hrs and 23:00hrs as established by the Electricity Consumption Limitation Regulation, a document that comprises only business operators that are large consumer and excludes household consumers.

'This decision does not automatically determine a reduction in consumption and does not oblige Transelectrica to apply limitations if the technical conditions justifying this measure are not met. The actual application will depend on the technical assessments on the state of the National Power Grid and the real need to balance it. The government decision creates the necessary legal framework for the use of this measure of last resort, if Transelectrica's technical analyses show that the other available measures are no longer sufficient to maintain the safe operation of the National Power Grid. The effective application of the regulation, in whole or only for certain tranches, may be ordered by Transelectrica exclusively according to the real need for balancing the system and only for the time when technical conditions justify it. The targeted final consumers will be informed individually, in writing, at least 24 hours before the application of the measure, specifying the time of the start, the application interval and the activated tranche or tranches,' the government explained in a press release on Friday.

Household and residential consumers are exempt from the consumption limitation regulation and the manual disconnection regulation.

Categories of consumers whose interruption could endanger the life, health or safety of persons or could generate serious consequences on critical technological processes, such as hospitals and other medical facilities, emergency services, certain critical industrial facilities, water supply systems or other essential infrastructures, under the conditions provided by the applicable regulations, are also protected. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: Daniel Florea; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)