After eliminating Gazprom’s monopoly on the national gas market, Moldova is about to obtain an advantageous alternative to electricity from Moldavskaya GRES, which is owned by Inter RAO (Russia), IPN reports.

In an interview for the Azerbaijani publication Report, Romania’s Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja spoke about the project to transport electricity from Azerbaijan via an electric cable on the bottom of the Black Sea to Romania, taking into account the needs of the Republic of Moldova.

Referring to the stage of implementation of the given project, the official noted that in order to pull an underwater cable in the Black Sea, four countries - Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary - created a design company. The transport operators have merged and are now working on a feasibility study, having concluded a contract with a company that is drawing up a package of technical documentation. “Once this is done, maybe in six months, maybe later, we will know exactly how much the project costs, if it is worth being implemented commercially, what the steps are, how long it will take and how difficult it is from a technical point of view,” said Sebastian Burduja.

The goal is to route the additional electricity received from the Caucasus through interconnections in the south, which already exist, and in the north, which will be created by 2027. Also, a middle connection from Iasi to Chisinau is planned.

As for the Republic of Moldova in the regional natural gas transmission network, IPN reported that Moldova, Ukraine and Slovakia joined the vertical gas corridor, combining with Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

First announced in 2016, the Vertical Corridor will now unite the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline and will allow the transportation of natural gas from Greece to Moldova and underground storage facilities in Ukraine. The pipeline could transport both natural gas from Azerbaijan and liquefied petroleum gas from the Revitus and Alexandroupolis terminals in Greece.

In January, SA Energocom already tested the mechanism for transporting these purchased amounts to Moldova.