18:41 08.06.2017

EU perplexed by Chisinau's decision to resume energy purchases from Transdniestria

2 min read
EU perplexed by Chisinau's decision to resume energy purchases from Transdniestria

The European Energy Community has asked Moldova to give explanations about the revision of contracts for the delivery of electricity from Ukraine, Interfax was told at the Moldovan Economy Ministry.

This is stated in a letter to Economy Minister Octavian Calmic in which the Secretariat of the Energy Community, the EU Delegation in Moldova and the EU high-level advisor for the energy policy asked for explanations about the situation with electricity deliveries from Transdniestria, the ministry report says.

"Moldova's return to purchases of electricity generated in Transdniestria aroused the bewilderment of our foreign partners," the Economy Ministry said.

The letter says that at the end of March Ukraine's DTEK Trading won an international tender organized by Moldovan operator-companies and Moldova's Energocom state company signed an agreement with it. The procedure of procurements was regulated by instructions developed by the Secretariat and approved by the Economy Ministry.

European experts praised the organization of the tender pointing out to the competition between Energocom state trader buying electricity in Ukraine and the Moldovan thermal power plant (MTPP) located in Transdniestria.

However, there are still many aspects which have to be worked on, their report said. "The National Agency for Energy Regulation in the framework of the observer group adopted a fairly inactive approach while the role of the Economy Ministry in the entire procedure was, on the contrary, too apparent considering that the Economy Ministry is the sole shareholder of Energocom," the report said.

The group recommended "removing these shortcomings while signing a new contract in 2018 and making the deepening of the reform of the market of energy resources in Moldova and further integration with the energy market of Ukraine a medium-term objective."

Moldova generates only 20% of the electricity it consumes. At the beginning of this week Energocom announced that it would buy only 30% of the necessary imported electricity from the Ukrainian supplier and 70% from MTPP with which a contract was signed at a 10% lower price. The Economy Ministry welcomed the contract believing that the existence of two suppliers will become a guarantee of non-stop power supplies for Moldova.

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