The main events in the energy year 2008 in the government’s opinion and expectations for 2009

Moldova hopes to obtain the status of a full member of the Energy Community Treaty of South-Eastern Europe in 2009. The negotiations started on November 26, 2008. Now Moldova is an observer in this arrangement, deputy minister of economy and trade Tudor Copaci stated when asked about the achievements of the energy year 2008 and the expectations for 2009. “The operator of the national energy transmission system – Moldelectrica – lodged the request of joining the Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE), and this means connecting the country’s power system to the functioning standards synchronized with UCTE. As a result of the negotiations with the representatives of TERNA (the system operator in Italy) and Transelectrica (the Romanian system operator), the decision to build a power line of 400 kV Balti – Suceava, by creating a corporation, including the state company Moldelectrica, was made,” Tudor Copaci said, quoted by Info- Prim Neo. According to the deputy minister, Moldova intensifies its cooperating relations with the power systems of Romania and Ukraine, the CIS and with the member states of the Power Charter. The results registered in the dialogue with the EU allow the country to benefit from the European instruments for financing the sector. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The European Investment Bank and other European banking institutions have already announced their availability to support many power projects in Moldova. In 2008, the construction of the power line of 110 kV Falciu (Romania) – Gotesti (Moldova) began, and it is to be finished in 2010. Up to now, for 9.2 of 25 km, 6.2 million lei have been allocated. The financing is made from the Moldelectrica's resources. The deputy minister of economy and trade appreciated as a good start the process of canceling the debts of the power distributors to the CET-1 and CET-2 power plants, the debts of these power plants to SA Moldovagaz and the debts of SA Moldovagaz to the ministry of Finances. The total debt amounts to 521 million lei. This debt has grown in years and it is a burden for the power sector, Copaci says. The official appreciates as timely the amendments promoted by the Insolvency Law, according to which the 5-year term provided for achieving the restructuring plan by SA Termocom, which is managed by the Creditors Board, was prolonged by 3 years. This is because Termocom has not managed to make payments to the gas provider and to the creditors. Tudor Copaci, who coordinates the problems of the power sector, says that it is necessary to endorse an adequate tariff policy. The lack of it results in generating new debts. In 2008 the draft law on the power efficiency has been worked out, taking into account the European norms in the area, and it will substitute the Law on conserving energy. The project was given to the Government to be endorsed, the deputy minister says. Tudor Copaci thinks that 2008 was full of events in the gas sector. Besides building about 300 km of local high pressure gas pipes, the Balti-Ungheni gas pipe is in the first stage of implementation. Finishing this work will enable ringing the networks providing with natural gas in the central and western Moldovan regions. In 2008, such networks were extended to 48 localities, in addition to those 863 connected to the pipe in 2008. An objective of this sector till 2009 is diversifying the energy sources, on the basis of increasing the local generating capacities. In this sense, an agreement with a Czech company, United Energy Moldova, was signed in December, 2008, with the purpose of building a power plant of 350 MW in Ungheni and an agreement of providing Moldova with power energy, mainly from the Moldovan Power Plant from Cuciurgan was signed by the Enercocom company. We also pursue improving power efficiency, drawing investments in the sector and adjusting to European standards.BACK