Lorant Antal: "Reducing energy consumption affects the industrial performance of our country"

Romania's electricity consumption decreased by 8%, and natural gas consumption decreased by 21% in the last three years, which led to a negative trend in the industrial performance of our country, Senator Antal Lorant said yesterday (UDMR), the president of the Commission for energy, energy infrastructure and mineral resources of the Senate, on the occasion of the launch of the energymap.ro platform. The platform is an interactive online map created on the own initiative of the parliamentarian from Harghita to provide an overview of the production and consumption of electricity and natural gas in Romania between 2021 and 2023. Lorant Antal specified: "Given that the extent of consumption of energy has always been closely linked to the economic performance of a country, the information we have synthesized on energymap.ro reveals a negative slope on which the industrial sector of our country was. (...) At the moment, non-household consumption constitutes approximately 72% of total electricity consumption and 64% of natural gas consumption. The trends we see are as realistic as possible and suggest a decline in industrial activity mainly due to the energy crisis, but also due to the lack of policies to support the economy. It is enough to look at GDP growth in 2023: it was only 2%. And, if we look at the per capita consumption, the value of 2.2 MWh/capita/year for electricity ranks us last in Europe, just below the global average of 3.3 MWh, and the 4.7 MWh/capita for natural gas, we are behind countries such as Hungary, Austria, Norway or the Netherlands, where per capita consumption varies from 10 to 17 MWh. A first conclusion: relative to its economic and energy potential, Romania has an underdeveloped industry".

Comparing the counties and development regions in Romania based on energymap.ro data, we find that the regions with the highest energy consumption were Bucharest-Ilfov and South Muntenia, and the North-East region, i.e. the northern half of Moldova, ranked last . And in terms of energy consumption/capita, we can observe the same trend: the highest value was recorded in the two regions in the South, and the lowest in the North-East, where the share of non-domestic consumption is also the lowest in Romania, to 51%. The highest rate of reduction in natural gas consumption, however, was recorded in the Center region, with a decrease of approx. 37% and in the Southeast, with 26%, while the smallest decrease can be observed in South Muntenia and Bucharest-Ilfov. Regarding electricity, the North-West and the Center were the regions with the biggest reduction in consumption, with 17% and 10%, respectively, and the South-East and Bucharest-Ilfov reported the smallest decreases.

If we look at the level of the counties, we find an even more suggestive picture: counties such as Mureş, Galaţi, Olt, Tulcea or Vâlcea, where important industrial platforms have reduced or stopped their activity, are at the top of the ranking for the decrease in energy consumption. In Mureş, for example, the restriction of Azomureş activity led to a 55% decrease, the largest in the country in absolute terms, of non-domestic natural gas consumption and a 29% decrease in non-domestic electricity consumption, the largest decrease in the country. The impact of the decrease can also be seen in the GDP growth rate in Mureş county from 2022 - it was only around 0.2%.