Power tariffs increase by 30 per cent in Moldova

Chisinau, 18 July /MOLDPRES/ - The price of power supplied by RED Nord state enterprise will be of 2.23 lei per Kw/h, by 30 per cent higher than at present, after a decision on tariff updating by the Board of Directors of the National Agency for Energy Regulation (ANRE) has entered into force.

ANRE set for consumers connected to medium voltage networks a tariff of 2.02 lei per KW/h, by 29 per cent higher than the present one. The state enterprise, which has over 295,000 clients, has requested the increase of prices by 85 per cent. But, the calculation did not take into account financial deviations created as a result of depreciation of the national currency against foreign currencies, deviations which reach the amount of 197 million lei, under the company’s calculations.

When updating the tariff in May 2012, the exchange rate of 11.83 lei was taken into account. RED Nord purchased electric energy at an exchange rate of 18.31 lei per dollar in the first semester of 2015.

„If we did not have this depreciation, we would talk today about a decrease in price by 0,08 lei,” a specialist of the Tariff and Economic Analysis Department within ANRE, Alexandru Ursu, said at a public meeting of the mentioned agency on 17 July. ANRE representatives highlighted that the price put up is dictated „ exclusively” by a much weaker leu.

ANRE has either denied the RED Nord-Vest state enterprise’s request to increase by 85 per cent the tariff. The price of electricity supplied by the mentioned company will be of 2.33 lei per kilowatt/h, by 35 per cent higher than at present and the price for consumers connected to medium voltage networks was raised up by 32 per cent, up to 2.07 lei per KW/h.

„We understand that the social and economic situation is difficult, but over 70 per cent of equipment has a high wear-out level, this is why we requested a higher increase of tariffs,” RED Nord-Vest Director General Mihai Seremet said.

Residents represent half of Moldovan power consumers, with few differences, in the area supplied by RED Nord – 52 per cent and RED Nord-Vest – about 60 per cent.

„Losses of over 330 million lei were not taken into consideration when adjusting the tariffs of those two enterprises, in order not to put pressure on final consumers. The rates were increased in order not to generate losses as a result of depreciation of the national currency and million-worth financial deviations invoked by suppliers will be taken into consideration after a close checkout,” ANRE Head Sergiu Ciobanu said. Ciobanu called on experts to participate in this checking in a transparent manner.

The new tariffs for electricity will enter into force next week, once published in the Moldovan Official Journal.

ANRE carried out the last updating of tariffs for power supplied to final consumers in May 2012, when a price higher by 8.9 per cent was set for domestic consumers connected to RED Nord networks and by 10.2 per cent higher for those connected to RED Nord-Vest.

(Reporter V. Bercu, Editor L. Alcaza)