The second reactor may be shut down in 4–5 days. That is how long the Romanian authorities are expected to be able to maintain the water level in the Danube, which cools Unit 2 of the Cernavodă Nuclear Power Plant. And the water from the rains that began yesterday in Austria—which have slightly improved the Danube’s flow—will not reach Romania for another 10 days.
Tsoiu reported that Bucharest is counting on electricity supplies from Ukraine following the declaration of a state of emergency in the energy market due to the severe drought. She wrote about this on her page on social media platform X following a phone conversation with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga.
According to Tsoiu, the main topic of the talks was mutual support between neighboring countries in the face of energy challenges. She informed her Ukrainian counterpart about the impact of the record-breaking drought on the Danube on electricity production in Romania and discussed the possibility of support through Ukrainian power generation.
“Romania today declared a state of emergency in the energy market due to the severe drought. Due to these circumstances, we had to preemptively shut down one of the reactors at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant, and during peak load hours, we will also rely on electricity generation in Ukraine,” Tsoiu wrote.
Moldova Is Next in Line
According to the Moldovan state-owned company Energocom, on August 1, 2026, the structure of electricity purchases for Moldova was as follows: 34.5% of the energy consumed was purchased in Moldova (from renewable sources and cogeneration plants) and 65.5% in Romania, through OPCOM and the Romanian Commodity Exchange.
If Romania begins purchasing electricity from Ukraine in large volumes, this will inevitably affect its exports from Romania to Moldova. We may not consume Ukrainian electricity directly, but these imports will certainly affect the prices at which Energocom purchases electricity for the Moldovan market.
Another interesting aspect of this situation is that Romania turned to Ukraine (which is itself experiencing a shortage) for electricity purchases, rather than to its European Union neighbors—Hungary, Poland, etc. This is most likely because electricity is much more expensive there.
