Iași street lighting cut amid energy shortage
Iași has become the first major Romanian city since 1989 to announce that most of its street lighting will be switched off at night. Mayor Mihai Chirica said lighting would be sharply reduced as the country faces an electricity shortage.
Night-time lighting will remain in hospital grounds, underground and pedestrian crossings, and major pedestrian areas popular with tourists. The rest of the city will be left without street lighting, a measure that could create additional difficulties for local police. The restrictions are expected to save the city as much as 10 MWh of electricity each day.
“The decision to reduce street lighting at night will be applied uniformly and fairly across the entire public area,” the mayor wrote on social media.
Romania declares heightened energy readiness
The decision on Iași street lighting followed an announcement by the Government of Romania that a state of heightened readiness had been introduced in the energy sector. The country’s power system is facing several simultaneous pressures.
Low water levels in the Danube have reportedly forced the shutdown of the country’s only nuclear power station at Cernavodă, while extreme heat has increased electricity consumption for cooling buildings. The article also links the disruption to a Ukrainian attack on an oil terminal in Novorossiysk, which it says has interrupted deliveries of Kazakh oil to Romania.
The authorities have presented the reduction in Iași street lighting as an emergency measure intended to ease pressure on the national energy system. Most residential areas will therefore remain dark at night, while lighting will be preserved only in locations regarded as essential for safety or tourism.
