The process of opening up the electrical power market in Moldova, which started to develop in 2010 and remained stagnant during the last two-three years, must be reanimated and hastened by immediately adopting the Law on Electricity, energy analyst of the Institute for Public Policy Ion Efros says in a study of the energy policies. The study shows that the electricity market of Moldova is too small for its liberalization to yield results remaining isolated from the European market, IPN reports.
The study shows that even if the liberalization of the electric power market was announced in 1996, the effective liberalization in terms of supply and production hasn’t yet occurred. According to the liberalization schedule agreed by Moldova with the Energy Community, the market for non-household users was to be liberalized from January 1, 2013, while for household users – from January 1, 2015. “In reality, as regards retail trade, both of the categories of consumers continue to be hostage of the existing suppliers,” stated Ion Efros.
The author of the study said there is opposition to fully opening up the electricity market at the European level too, not only in the Republic of Moldova. “This opposition is explained by fears related to weak consumers, especially domestic households and small companies that have limited access to the choice of the supplier and limited control on the power tariffs charged by these suppliers,” said Ion Efros.
According to him, the uncertainty about Moldova’s liberalization will be costly, first of all for the country’s consumers, who are captive to a double pole in setting import prices.
In his study, the author made a number of recommendations for the electric power market. Thus, the Competition Council should play a more active role in cases concerning competition on the electricity market at wholesale level, while the power suppliers in Moldova should be obliged by an article to the new Law on Electricity to indicate any component of the price of power in bills. The National Agency for Energy Regulation should be depoliticized and an electricity market operator should be created.
The study was carried out with the partial support of the Open Society Foundations.
