Romania is auctioning grid capacity for the first time — and there is no free capacity to win
Transelectrica's first grid capacity auction opens bidding on 30 October 2026: 12 projects, 491 MW, €20,000 per MW guarantee — and zero MW available without grid reinforcement. What bidders need to know.
What happened
Romania's first grid capacity auction opens daily bidding on 30 October 2026 across the country's ten grid zones. Twelve projects requesting a combined 491 MW made the eligible list — standalone batteries account for 212 MW of that. The striking detail: Transelectrica's published capacity without new grid works is zero megawatts in every zone and every allocation year from 2028 to 2037. Everything bid for requires reinforcement. Sources: Momentum Energy, 6 September 2026 (momentumenergy.ro); Auranova Ventures, 15 October 2026 (auranova.io); Business24, 26 October 2026 (business24.ro).
The mechanics that matter
Projects of 5 MW and up must bid. The participation guarantee is €20,000 per MW requested, paid up front with the application. Allocations are valid for ten years from 2028. On top of that, regulator ANRE raised the connection guarantee for new capacity above 1 MW from 5% to 20% of the connection tariff, and added a €30 per kW establishment authorisation guarantee. Romania is deliberately making grid access expensive to flush out speculative projects.
Check this on the Romania map
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Our take
This is the end of free queuing in Romania, and probably a template for the region. When capacity costs real money, the projects that win are the ones with the best underlying economics — which start with the site. A battery at the right substation, with cheap land and a short cable route, can outbid a project that carries a weak location into the auction.
What to do with this
If you are bidding, know your zone and your substation economics before the sessions start. If you missed this round, the next one rewards early land work. Gridscouter's Romania map ranks substations and finds land positions around each one. Every Gridscouter plan starts with 14 days of full access for €0 today. Cancel any time before the trial ends and you pay nothing.
Gridscouter scores are estimates from open map data, not grid operator capacity figures. Always confirm connection capacity with the grid operator.