The National Energy Regulatory Authority (ANRE) approved on Wednesday the Regulation on Consumption Flexibility Service, a new market mechanism allowing eligible consumers - directly or through suppliers and aggregators - to be paid for temporarily and voluntarily reducing electricity use.

ANRE said the mechanism adds 'a new resource' to the energy market: demand-side flexibility, enabling consumers to cut usage in certain intervals when it is economically advantageous. The authority stressed the service is not a crisis tool and not a form of rationing; participation is fully voluntary.

ANRE president George Niculescu said the regulation gives consumption flexibility 'a value and a price' in the market. 'We are not talking about rationing or a mechanism reserved for crises. A consumer can decide that, at a certain moment and price, it is more advantageous to reduce consumption and be paid for that flexibility,' he said. He added that the mechanism brings 'the other side of the equation' into balancing the system: 'Sometimes it is more efficient and cheaper to reduce demand voluntarily. We turn consumers from passive participants into active partners of the National Energy System. It is a market instrument, based on competition and economic decision.'

According to ANRE, the mechanism can help manage difficult periods - resource deficits, extreme temperatures, major production outages or import limits - but also support normal market functioning when high prices make temporary consumption cuts attractive. Activating flexibility also eases pressure on the balancing market by replacing costly balancing resources with competitively priced demand reductions.

Under the system, Transelectrica sets the flexibility need and organizes auctions. Eligible consumers, suppliers or aggregators submit offers for the amount they can reduce and the price requested. Transelectrica selects the most competitive bids, verifies actual reductions through metering data, and remunerates participants accordingly. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mariana Nica; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)