Moldovan Energy Ministry says export of renewable energy to be allowed only after domestic needs covered

Chisinau, 20 December /MOLDPRES/ - A mechanism due to allow the priority purchasing of renewable energy on market by Energocom will be enforced for covering the deficit starting from 1 January 2025 and the export of renewable energy will be allowed only after the domestic consumption is covered. The Energy Ministry today made statements to this effect, after the state secretary, Constantin Borosan, had summoned a meeting with the independent producers of  renewable energy from Moldova.   

Attending the meeting were representatives of the companies which manage the wind power stations and photovoltaic stations with an overall capacity of about 215 MW. The sides agreed that the renewable energy contributed to the attenuation of the energy crisis and can ensure an important part of the needs in the peak hours.  

„In 2022, the export of electric energy was banned. Now, the quantities of renewable energy are significantly higher and we want to enforce a fair, balanced and flexible mechanism, which is to be suitable also for the producers, so that the latter can export when the domestic consumption is covered,’’ Constantin Borosan said.   

The Energy Ministry noted that the Energocom Company had already worked out and submitted framework contracts on buying electric energy to the producers of renewable energy.

Presently, the producers on the free market export electric energy produced in certain hours, while during the peak consumption hours, Energocom imports energy from Romania at higher prices.    

According to statistics data, the set capacity of production of energy from renewable sources increased by over 55 per cent in Moldova this year against the 2023 year; the greatest progress was registered in the field of the photovoltaic installations. Thus, in the third quarter of this year, Moldova got to have power stations from renewable sources with a capacity set of 521 MW or 11-fold more than in 2019.     

In the case of photovoltaic installations, in the first nine months of 2024, the capacity grew from 185 MW in 2023 to 344 MW or almost twice as much. The capacity of the wind installations increased from 126 MW in 2023 to 154 MW in 2024, which represents a growth of over 22 per cent.    

Out of these stations, the photovoltaic stations with a capacity of 119 MW were set based on the fixed tariff support mechanism and 84.5 MW without any support mechanism, with the electric energy sold on free market. The wind stations on free market have a capacity of 128 MW and based on the law on renewable energy from 2007 – 25.9 MW.