The Danube\u2019s flow in Romania fell to a record low of about 1,400 cubic metres per second on Thursday, around one-third of its normal August level. Officials estimate that the barge operation could extend the remaining reactor\u2019s operating window from five or six days to nine or 10 days.<\/p>\n
Bucharest has meanwhile reduced street-light intensity by one-third and switched off night-time lighting at major buildings and museums to conserve electricity.<\/p>\n
Moldova warns of possible rolling blackouts<\/p>\n
Electricity supplies are also tight in neighbouring Moldova, where temperatures have risen above 38\u00b0C.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Vasile Tofan has urged households and businesses to reduce power consumption, warning that rolling blackouts could be required if demand remains high. Ukraine has been unable to supply electricity at previously agreed rates, while Romania is also struggling to provide additional power during peak periods.<\/p>\n
The strain reflects how the heatwave is affecting both sides of the electricity equation: hot weather is driving demand higher while drought and warm, shallow rivers are restricting nuclear and hydropower production.<\/p>\n
Romania\u2019s two Cernavoda reactors normally provide about one-fifth of the country\u2019s electricity, while hydropower generation has also been hit by drought. Similar conditions across neighbouring countries have limited Romania\u2019s ability to rely on imported power.<\/p>\n
Rhine shipping hit by shallow water<\/p>\n
Falling river levels are also disrupting freight in Germany.<\/p>\n
Cargo vessels on the Rhine have been forced to operate with reduced loads because of shallow water, requiring goods to be spread among more ships and raising transport costs.<\/p>\n
At particularly shallow sections of the river, vessels have recently been able to carry only a fraction of their normal loads. Tanker-barge freight rates between Rotterdam and Karlsruhe had risen to about \u20ac60-\u20ac70 per tonne from around \u20ac45 at the end of June, according to commodity traders.<\/p>\n
The Rhine is one of Europe\u2019s main inland transport arteries, carrying commodities including grain, minerals, ores, coal and petroleum products.<\/p>\n
The combination of extreme heat and depleted rivers is therefore spreading the impact of Europe\u2019s summer weather beyond public health, reaching power generation, industrial supply chains and transport networks across the continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Danube\u2019s flow in Romania fell to a record low of about 1,400 cubic metres per second on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1188,1346,21856,241,41,25556,39,25555,14319,5,20553,148],"class_list":["post-38539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-breaking-news","tag-climate-change","tag-drought","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-freight","tag-germany","tag-health-warning","tag-heatwave","tag-italy","tag-power-grid","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}