The previous water and sewerage charges and the recently adjusted rates for SA “Apă-Canal Chișinău” include all the costs needed to cover electricity consumption, the National Agency for Energy Regulation (NAER) said following statements about the municipal supplier’s economic-financial situation and the risks related to water supply, IPN reports.

A day ago, the mayor of Chisinau warned the risk that the city will remain without water is very big. According to Ion Ceban, owing to the delay in the process of adjusting the water and sewerage charges and because the costs for the other services grew in a row, “Apă-Canal Chișinău” accumulated debts for electricity. The debt for two months totals 78 million lei and the company does not have such an amount to clear it.

The power supplier ICS “Premier Energy” announced that it decided to put off the disconnection of the installations of SA “Apă-Canal Chișinău” until February 1 after it was assured by representatives of the Chisinau City Hall that considerable efforts are being made to identify solutions to pay for the electricity consumed by the water supplier.

The NAER noted that the current charges cover all the operating costs of the water supplier, according to the technological consumption and water losses in the network accepted for tariff purposes, including the costs for electricity, according to the updated price of power. “The Agency encourages the administration of “Apă-Canal Chișinău” and the founder of this to concentrate their efforts on improving the economic-financial management so as to clear the debts owed to the company’s creditors and, in this case, to identify mutually acceptable solutions together with ICS “Premier Energy” for settling the debt for power consumption,” the regulator noted in a press release.

The Agency announced that it initiated an inspection at “Apă-Canal Chișinau” so as to determine how the company applied the current norms in its work in 2020-2022.