Energy: Power crisis temporarily halts car production in Romania

Due to a looming power shortage, car manufacturers Dacia and Ford have temporarily halted production in Romania, according to Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan. The plants will remain idle until August 19, the head of government said on Monday in Bucharest. The companies thus followed an appeal by the government to voluntarily reduce their energy consumption.

The production stop by the US group Ford and Renault subsidiary Dacia has already reduced the country's overall electricity demand by 200 megawatts on Monday. Bolojan added that other companies would follow this example and also reduce their consumption.

The causes of the power crisis in Romania are a heatwave and a persistent drought, which have led to extremely low water levels, especially in the Danube. As a result, the country had to drastically reduce its electricity production.

Among other things, the energy company Nuclearelectrica shut down one of the two reactors at its nuclear power plant because not enough water was flowing through the Danube for cooling. Nuclearelectrica normally produces around a fifth of the country's electricity consumption.

The country currently has to import between 2000 and 2500 megawatts of electricity per day, Bolojan explained. Since import capacities are limited, the prime minister renewed his appeal to companies, private households, and state institutions to continue to voluntarily reduce their electricity consumption.

Hungary's nuclear power plant on the brink of shutdown

The situation is also tense in neighboring Hungary. The country's only nuclear power plant, Paks, is on the verge of a complete shutdown due to the historically low water level of the Danube.

The plant, which normally supplies around half of Hungary's electricity, is currently only running at just over ten percent of its capacity of two gigawatts.

The last remaining turbine may possibly still be in operation until Tuesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said.

As in Romania, households and companies in Hungary also followed a government call to save energy. For example, the pharmaceutical company Richter announced that it would reduce its electricity demand by more than half over the next three weeks.