Moldova to reduce gas consumption by at least 15% relative to the average consumption over the last 5 years.
State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Constantin Borosan, announced this, mentioning that the authorities will strive to achieve this objective at the national level, regardless of gas supplies scenario in the coming winter. As Constantin Borosan emphasized, in the previous heating season, thanks to the implementation of measures provided for by the Winter Preparation Plan, as well as due to higher temperatures, it was possible to reduce the consumption of natural gas by 47% and electricity by 10% compared to the previous year. The current action plan envisages 40 measures to prepare for the start of the heating season and 20 measures to mitigate the consequences in case of natural gas supply cuts. A government commission headed by Prime Minister and the Energy Minister coordinates and supervises the measures stipulated in the Winter Preparation Plan. "Preparing for the next heating season, considering possible scenarios, developing intervention actions and communicating the action plan to all stakeholders also means raising awareness and confidence that we will survive this winter as well," the Energy Ministry State Secretary said. According to him, the better prepared we are for the heating season, the lower the risk and consequences of a possible natural gas and/or electricity outage. The current Winter Preparation Plan considers 3 possible scenarios of natural gas supplies. The first scenario stipulates that Gazprom fulfills the terms of the contract with Moldovagaz and supplies the contracted volumes. The second scenario stipulates that Gazprom will continue supplying natural gas to Moldovagaz within the reserved annual capacity of 5.7 million cubic meters per day. In this case, the volumes of natural gas are either distributed proportionally between the banks of the Dniester to partially cover consumption, or distributed for consumers on the left bank of the Dniester and for Moldavskaya GRES to produce electricity for the right bank of the Dniester. The left bank of the Dniester will also have to take measures to reduce energy consumption. This scenario is considered the baseline, given that since December 2022 the entire volume of natural gas supplied by Gazprom is distributed on the left bank of the Dniester, while on the right bank the consumption is fully covered by Energocom. According to the Ministry of Energy, a very important point here is that the price of natural gas currently supplied by Energocom is lower than the price offered by Gazprom. At the same time, the third scenario envisages a complete cessation of supplies and the termination by Gazprom of the natural gas supply contract with Moldovagaz. // 07.08.2023 - InfoMarket
