ANRE approved with reservations the contracts for the purchase of electricity concluded by the companies, and also stated that there were no prerequisites for raising electricity tariffs for end consumers this year.
The energy regulator announced this, noting that, in particular, the Administrative Council of the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) reviewed and approved contracts for the purchase of electricity for Moldelectrica, RED-NORD, FEE-Nord, Premier Energy and Premier Energy Distribution with reservations. It is emphasized that the contracts for the purchase of electricity were concluded after the electricity market operators held tenders approved by ANRE, designed to guarantee the purchase of electricity using the principles and mechanisms of a competitive market. For the first time, the whole process is regulated by the provisions of the Electricity Purchase Procedure approved in August 2020 by ANRE and developed on the basis of the best European practices with the support of the Energy Community Secretariat. ANRE clarified that this is an obligation of Moldova within the framework of the Association Agreement with the EU and part of the III Energy Package. The purpose of the Procedure is to facilitate the procurement of electricity by license holders in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner using competitive market mechanisms. ANRE established that the Moldovan HPP (Dnestrovsk, Transnistrian region), temporarily registered in Moldova, was declared the winner in all tenders of the electricity market operators. The price agreed upon after negotiations is $53.5 per MWh, which is about 10% more than in the previous period. ANRE recalled that in 2020, the supply of electricity to all operators of the domestic market was provided by the state-owned company Energocom with the same source of generation (the Moldovan HPP) at the electricity purchase price of $48.65 per MWh. ANRE pointed out that the size of the internal market, the lack of interconnection with the market of the EU countries (ENSO-E) and the limited volume of proposals for the supply of energy in the domestic market determined a small number of companies that were prequalified in the tender procedures. The energy regulator stressed that, taking into account the results of the tenders of the domestic market operators for the purchase of electricity for 2021, the tariff methodology in this area, the macroeconomic indicators that formed the basis of the current electricity tariffs, ANRE stated that there were no legal preconditions for revising / increasing electricity tariffs for final household and non-household consumers during this year. // 31.03.2021 - InfoMarket
