2027 Power: Electrica & PPC Offer 750, ELCEN Wants 840 RON — NRG-IA

Romania is currently trying to establish how much electricity delivered in 2027 will cost, and the new OPCOM auctions are revealing a major gap between the prices accepted by buyers and those demanded by thermal producers. For the first quarter of next year, Electrica Furnizare and PPC Energie entered the market on August 21 with a maximum price of 750 RON/MWh for baseload power. They found no sellers. Four days later, ELCEN is set to test the same delivery period at a minimum of 840 RON/MWh. The difference is 90 RON per MWh for the same delivery profile and period: January 1–March 31, 2027. Baseload power means a constant volume delivered every hour, day and night, making this comparison far more relevant than a simple side-by-side of two market prices. The dispute does not stop at the first quarter. For the full year 2027, Electrica Furnizare, PPC Energie, and Transelectrica offered a maximum of 620 RON/MWh on August 21. In its recent sales attempts, Complexul Energetic Oltenia lowered its price to 725 RON/MWh and still found no buyers. Here, the gap reaches 105 RON/MWh . The new auctions do not point to an inactive exchange, but rather to a much more specific issue: buyers and some thermal producers cannot currently find common ground on pricing for new firm power contracts for 2027. ELCEN drops from 890 to 840 RON/MWh, testing the market again The next showdown is already scheduled. On August 25, ELCEN will offer two baseload power packages for Q1 2027: one of 10 MW and another of 5 MW. Together, these represent 32,385 MWh for the January–March period. The minimum price set by the company is 840 RON/MWh . This level is also significant compared to the previous attempt. ELCEN had recently asked for 890 RON/MWh for baseload power delivered in the first quarter of next year and received no bids. The new attempt reduces the threshold by 50 RON/MWh, but still leaves it 90 RON/MWh above the maximum price offered on August 21 by Electrica and PPC for the same period. The August 25 auction could thus provide a new market benchmark. If a buyer emerges at 840 RON/MWh, the market will validate a level significantly higher than the one offered four days prior. If the packages remain unmatched once again, the gap between ELCEN's valuation and the buyers' recently demonstrated willingness to pay will become even more apparent. For the full year 2027, the gap reaches 105 RON/MWh The same disconnect appears in contracts for the entire next year. In two sessions initiated on August 21 by Electrica Furnizare, joined by Transelectrica and PPC Energie, buyers offered a maximum of 620 RON/MWh for baseload power delivered from January 1 to December 31, 2027. Each session targeted 5 MW, or 43,800 MWh, bringing the total requested volume to 87,600 MWh. No sellers emerged. On the other side, Complexul Energetic Oltenia had previously tried to sell power for the full year 2027 at 730 RON/MWh and then at 725 RON/MWh. Even this price reduction failed to attract buyers for the auctioned packages, which totaled approximately 876 GWh. The outcome pits two very different levels against each other for the same type of annual product: 620 RON/MWh offered by buyers and 725 RON/MWh requested by CE Oltenia . Asking prices should not be confused with the companies' production costs. The analyzed public documents do not establish that 725 RON/MWh represents CE Oltenia's cost or that 840 RON/MWh is ELCEN's cost. These are simply the minimum prices at which the producers decided to offer power in these auctions. Existing contracts for 2027 are at much lower levels The conflict becomes even more relevant when compared to the power already contracted for next year. OPCOM indicators for contracts with delivery in 2027 show values of approximately 571–589 RON/MWh , depending on the market and delivery period. The ROPEX_FM indicator stands around 571–574 RON/MWh for the months of 2027, while PCCB-LE-flex statistics indicate weighted average levels of about 581–589 RON/MWh for existing contracts. These values do not represent an executable offer today for the exact same volumes and conditions currently being auctioned. The contracts were concluded at different times and may have different structures. However, they provide an important benchmark: the market already has power for 2027 contracted at significantly lower levels than those currently requested by some thermal producers. This fundamentally changes the perception of a "frozen" market. There are contracts for 2027, there are participants, and there are traded volumes. The issue is that the newly proposed prices for firm baseload power are failing to align. For the buyer, the difference between 580 and 725–840 RON/MWh is too large to ignore when the contract locks in the cost for months or even an entire year. Thermal power and buyers view the same year from different positions CE Oltenia and ELCEN operate in thermal power generation, where the economics of firm delivery are influenced by…