The current energy crisis is not accidental. It is due to the inheritance and to the failures of bad governments and also to the late reaction of the current government that assumed useless risks out of incompetence, said Moldova’s ex-ambassador to the U.S. Igor Munteanu.
The former ambassador noted that the purchase of electricity should have been begun in summer, from diversified sources, primarily from outside the conflict zone. Neither the war-battered Ukraine nor the Kuchurgan power plant is a safe electricity supplier. “We wound have been in a safer situation if our strategy had been oriented to Romania, as we do in emergencies,” he stated, being quoted by IPN
Igor Munteanu noted that the current purchases of electricity are extremely risky. “The state-run company Energocom performed a series of detrimental transactions. Energocom in September alone lost €2 million on gas sales as it preferred the Ukrainian companies ERU and Naftogaz to which it sold 110 000 MW of gas at the price of €180 per MW even if it had the option of stock exchanges in Romania, which bought gas for of €200 per MW. What are the reasons why Energocom sticks to its clients in Ukraine and is afraid of the stock exchanges of Romania?” asked rhetorically Igor Munteanu.
“The strategy to bank on transactions that cross the territory of a state that is at war is extremely imprudent. If this strategy is successful, it will be the result of luck, not of wisdom. Our security is practically a game of chance today. We have a pipe with Romania, which we consciously ignore, and a gas stock exchange that we do not use.”
Igor Munteanu called on the Commission for Exceptional Situations to use its authority to accelerate and double the pace of the works to build the high-voltage power line “Isaccea-Vulcănești-Chișinău”. “We would have had now more possibilities of integrating our electricity system into the Romanian one because Romania, as it is known, has plenty of sources - nuclear, hydroelectric, thermoelectric and green ones,” said the ex-ambassador.
The Republic of Moldova imports 46% of the necessary electricity from the Kucgrugan power plant that it supplies with additional amounts of natural gas. It also imports 35% of power from Romania and satisfies only 10% of the needs with locally produced electrical energy. The deficit of 7% is covered by taking saving measures.
