Electricity market development in Romania

The liberalization of electricity market and introducing competition in power generation and supply sectors are two major objectives of the energy policy in Romania. Since 1998 when the power reform and demonopolisation process actually started, several restructuring stages have been passed. The restructuring process is not completed yet. The national medium-term strategy for the development of the Romanian energy sector adopted by the Government in 2001 includes specific guidelines on privatization of generation and distribution companies in order to develop a competitive framework for the electricity trading. The paper presents the recent progress of power sector restructuring and the measures implemented to introduce competition in the electricity market.