Record low river levels push Europe to brink of energy emergency

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Numerous governments across Central and Eastern Europe are taking steps to conserve electricity and avert an energy crisis as record low water levels on the Danube River have forced power plants to the brink of shutting down.

Persistent drought and successive extreme heat waves have deprived one of Europe’s largest rivers of water, pushing the Danube’s levels in Hungary’s capital Budapest to around 10 cm (4 inches) on Monday, well below the previous all-time low of 33 cm (13 inches) set in 2018.

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Water levels are not expected to rise on the Danube in the coming days or even weeks as no significant rainfall is forecast, and as a renewed extreme heat wave bears down on the region with daytime highs topping 38 C (100 F), electricity and water use are on the rise.

The Danube’s record low levels have pushed Hungary’s only nuclear power plant, the Soviet-built, four-reactor plant at Paks, to the brink of powering down entirely for the first time in its 44 years in service.

The MVM Paks Nuclear Power Plant, which had to close its Reactor 3 due to extremely low water levels on the Danube River, is seen in Paks, Hungary, Wednesday July 29, 2026. (Daniel Kiss/Associated Press)

The Paks plant, which uses water from the Danube to cool its reactors, on Monday was producing only 240 megawatts of power rather than the usual 2,000.

In video posted to Facebook on Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said engineers had managed to keep the plant’s final operating turbine temporarily running, averting an expected shutdown on the weekend.

“This is very good news, because the complete shutdown of the Paks power plant can still be avoided, at least temporarily, on one of the biggest consumption days,” he said, adding that a full power-down was likely on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The Paks plant, located around 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of Budapest, accounts for nearly half of Hungary’s electricity production and around a third of its consumption. Hungary has relied on regional electricity imports as well as renewable sources to try to make up for the deficit from the Paks plant.

Hungary’s government last week asked major industrial users to curb their electricity consumption and sought voluntary savings from households in order to conserve supply, particularly in peak demand hours between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.

It also announced that electric-powered freight trains would not be permitted to run during peak hours beginning on Monday in order to conserve an estimated 70 to 90 megawatt-hours of electricity per day.

While conservation measures were initially voluntary, Magyar’s government on Saturday issued a decree allowing for them to be made mandatory for large industrial or commercial consumers.

He said Monday that the conservation push had resulted in 700 fewer megawatts of electricity being used the previous day, and thanked Hungarians for their efforts.

The Romanian Navy detonates underwater explosives during a controlled demolition of submerged rocks to improve water flow to the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant amid exceptionally low water levels on the Danube River, in Izvoarele, Romania, Monday, Aug. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru)

Serbia and Romania grapple with low Danube levels

Meanwhile, plants in neighbouring countries have also seen dramatic drops in power generation, as well as disruptions to shipping and agriculture.

Romania’s military on Monday used 180 kg (397 lb) of explosives to blast rock near the Danube’s Bala Canal in order to redirect water into the river’s main channel and toward the state-owned Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

The Danube’s water flow has fallen to 1,500 cubic metres per second in Romania, less than a third of its July average. Authorities have already shut down one reactor unit at the Cernavoda plant, which is operating at about half its normal capacity.

Acting Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan announced a nationwide state of alert in the energy sector on Friday, and warned that the Danube’s low water levels threatened the shutdown of Cernavoda’s second reactor. He appealed to citizens to voluntarily limit electricity usage in peak evening hours.

After meeting with major industrial consumers on Monday, Bolojan said carmakers Dacia and Ford had gone into maintenance and halted auto production until Aug. 19, while other companies agreed to reduce their energy usage during peak hours.

In Serbia, record-low Danube levels have pushed the country’s key hydroelectric plant to operate with only 20 per cent of its capacity, prompting Prime Minister Djuro Macut to preside over an emergency meeting on Monday focusing on energy problems.

Macut appealed to residents to “minimize the use of big consumers of electricity in their homes, such as air conditioners.” He described the situation in a statement late on Sunday as “serious and demanding.”