District heating systems in Moldova will be evaluated for technical condition and future development courses of action. The national assessment of thermal energy potential and the roadmap for sustainable district heating systems will be carried out with the support of the World Bank, the Ministry of Energy announced.
The output will be a document which will transpose the requirements of relevant European directives and which will help to improve energy efficiency along the entire value chain, from the generation of electricity and thermal energy, to the final consumer.
According to the Ministry of Energy, with the help of external partners, including the World Bank projects to modernize district heating systems in Chisinau and Balti have been implemented, in recent years, but some of the public policy documents that regulate the sector are outdated. Constantin Borosan, state secretary at the Ministry of Energy, said that there are technological limitations and complexities related to the existing equipment, that’s why the evaluation will help to reveal the general picture at the national level.
Carolina Novac, the Ministry’s chief decarbonization official, stated that Moldova has an untapped potential of solid biomass that can be integrated into district heating systems. To optimize energy consumption, says Novac, our country could also consider heat pumps, a technology that is being promoted today in the EU.
The World Bank project also aims, in addition to the district heating system assessment, to evaluate the economic efficiency potential of the subsector, identify new strategies and public policy measures to exploit the economic efficiency potential of these facilities, measures that will be valid for at least the next 10 years.
According to the National Agency for Energy Regulation, currently 10 companies hold licenses to produce thermal energy, compared to the 1990s, when their number was around 40, practically in all district centers. The largest are Termoelectrica in Chisinau and CET Nord in Balti.
