Battery storage in Romania

Where storage stands

By April 2026 Transelectrica counted 1,130 MWh of operational storage with 599 MW of delivery power, and 663 MW of storage was among the 2,514 MW connected in 2026 to 21 August, including the 76.76 MW / 150.288 MWh IS Părău facility that pushed the annual total past 2,500 MW. The operator projects around 1,000 MW of additional storage by December 2026. At the small end, 114,780 prosumers had batteries at the end of May 2026, a third of all prosumers.

How batteries earn revenue in Romania

Standalone batteries earn from balancing and ancillary services procured by Transelectrica, from arbitrage between midday solar surpluses and evening scarcity on the day-ahead and intraday markets, and, where structured, from optimisation agreements with traders. The Scornicești project financed by the EBRD in 2026 relies on mainly merchant revenues through an optimisation agreement, backed by an InvestEU first-loss guarantee, which is the template lenders are now using. Co-located storage improves the capture price of solar and is increasingly treated as the bankability standard for new hybrid projects.

One design gap matters: the CfD scheme was written for generation and does not reward storage, so developers combining a CfD-backed plant with a battery need a separate revenue model for the storage asset.

Grants: the Modernisation Fund calls

In July 2026 the Ministry of Energy allocated EUR 250 million from the Modernisation Fund to storage and smart meters. The EUR 150 million standalone battery call opened on 1 September 2026 and closes on 30 October 2026: at least 2,174 MWh of new capacity is targeted, projects are ranked by the lowest state aid requested per MWh, aid is capped at EUR 69,000 per MWh and EUR 15 million per company, and applicants must operate under CAEN code 35. Earlier storage support came through the Recovery and Resilience Plan and previous Modernisation Fund calls for co-located batteries.

Technology and system need

Lithium-ion dominates, and sodium-ion has arrived at scale according to our June 2026 analysis of a 3.6 GWh supply agreement. The system need is structural: Cernavodă Unit 1 enters a 2027-2030 refurbishment, hydro output depends on Danube flows that fell to their lowest level since 1996 in summer 2026, and midday solar is pushing prices below zero. Batteries solve hours; longer-duration options such as the Tarnița pumped-storage project remain under discussion for overnight flexibility.

What this means for investors

• Merchant BESS is financeable in Romania today, with EBRD-style structures and InvestEU guarantees; expect lenders to require an optimisation agreement.
• The EUR 150 million call rewards the lowest aid per MWh, so grant strategy and project sizing (EUR 15 million cap per company) need to be decided before application.
• Co-located storage changes the capture price and the financing terms of solar projects; model it as part of the base case, not as an add-on.
• Balancing-market and ancillary-service rules set by ANRE (Romanian Energy Regulatory Authority) and Transelectrica determine the revenue stack; read them before assuming CfD-style certainty.

Momentum Energy's view

Storage is the segment where Romania's numbers have moved fastest and where we expect the widest gap between the best and worst projects. Grants help, but the durable advantage will belong to owners with good grid positions and credible optimisation partners. We would rather back a well-sited 100 MWh battery with a merchant model we understand than a larger project whose economics depend on a grant that may not be awarded.

The view above is Momentum Energy's opinion and is separated from the sourced facts in the tables. It is not investment advice.