The Moldovan government is opposed to the sale of electricity produced from Russian gas by the state-owned power plant of the Moldovan district in Transnistria (an Inter RAO company) abroad, demanding to be the sole consumer of electricity, Energy Minister Viktor Parlikov said on the Exclusive TV channel.
According to the official, Moldovan state-owned company Energocom should remain the only external buyer of this electricity, which is currently about 30% cheaper than EU market prices.
“Now a decision will be made at a government meeting on the introduction of a fiscal monopoly on the purchase of electricity from MoldGRES, i.e. Energocom will be the only buyer of this electricity. So that there is no temptation for the Moldovan state district power plant to supply it at high prices somewhere, so as not to supply it to us,” – the minister stressed.
Parlikov recalled that Transnistria does not pay for the supply of Russian gas from JSC Moldovagaz, with which Gazprom has a direct contract for supplies to the region (the historical debt is about 10 billion dollars), and the proceeds from the sale of electricity go to the budget of the unrecognized republic.
“This construction is purely political and there is no need to represent a market where it does not exist de facto. It benefits everyone.” — concluded Viktor Parlikov.
Earlier this month, the state-owned company Energocom announced that Moldova will buy 88% of its electricity from MoldGRES in September at a fixed price of $66 per MWh until the end of the year. Another 7% will be supplied by thermal power plants and local producers of energy from renewable sources. The remaining 5% will be purchased by the republic on the Romanian stock exchange OPCOM.
Now Chisinau is redirecting all the gas received from Gazprom to the region (5.7 million cubic meters of gas per day) so that MoldGRES can ensure Moldova’s energy stability.
The other day, kyiv announced that from the new year it would stop providing the Russian Federation with gas transit, which is used by the Left Bank power generating company. In this case, the Republic of Moldova will have to buy electricity from Romania, which will lead to an increase in tariffs for consumers.
The Moldovan government has made no secret of the fact that, under these conditions, it is pragmatically interested in Russia continuing to supply gas to Transnistria. Parlikov suggested that in order to achieve this, Gazprom could redirect supplies via Turkey.
As reported EADaily In October 2022, Chisinau, for political reasons, rejected the contract with MoldGRES, claiming that the republic had “moved away from Russian energy dependence”. At that time, Moldova was synchronized with the European Network of Transmission Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), but not directly, but through Ukraine. After subsequent attacks by the Russian military on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure, Moldova suffered two blackouts and was left without electricity. In December of the same year, the government of the Republic of Moldova renewed the contract with MoldGRES and at the same time began building power lines to Romania.
