Principles concerning the progress of the gas demand side management in Romania

The consequences of the application of demand side management (DSM) and integrated resources planning (IRP) notions for natural gas are analysed. Present socio-economic context in Romania - from a geopolitical point of view - obviously highlights a set of difficult gas supply problems in our country related to: the impossibility of satisfying the consumption demand from internal resources; the necessity of ensuring by imports of an important quantity of gas, which entails an important foreign currency expenditure and possible political pressures which an unique supplier could exert; the requirement of alignment to the western European country legislation, at an institutional and economical practice level. Each of these problems related to the gas-based power production and all together impose the tackling of DSM and IRP requirements from a strategic point of view. Some conclusions and proposals are presented. (author) 1 fig., 4 refs