The Government of Romania extended the obligation imposed on Romanian producers to conclude direct contracts for the sale of electricity to Moldova at the capped price of RON 450 (EUR 90) per MWh, if the situation so requires, on the grounds that the Republic of Moldova could face a lack of energy from the Transnistria plant – its main electricity provider. 

"The interruption of electricity production at the MoldGRESplant [in Transnistria] can be caused either by the cessation of natural gas supply by Gazprom or by the termination of the contract with [Moldova's energy trader] Energocom in order to sell the energy production on the markets of Ukraine or even Romania since this production point is owned by a private joint-stock company with Russian capital," the Romanian Ministry of Energy explained.

Romania endorsed such a provision during the winter of 2022 to 2023 to protect Moldova from power outages in the context of the war in Ukraine (previously a significant electricity supplier to Moldova) and risks generated by Moldova's dependence on pro-Russian Transnistria's deliveries.

According to the Ministry of Energy, Romanian producers delivered over 500 GWh of electricity to Moldova last winter.

"In the period October 2022 - February 2023, the electricity exported from Romania to the Republic of Moldova Romania was 523,413 MWh, which represents a percentage of 2.1% of the total production in Romania," according to the ministry's estimates, quoted by Economica.net.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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