In Moldova, the conditions for the provision of financial guarantees by bidders for electricity will be changed.
In particular, the amount of such a guarantee will be set within reasonable limits by the National Agency for Energy Regulation. This is provided for by amendments to the Law on Electricity, which the Parliament adopted on Friday in the first reading in order to introduce a new mechanism for balancing and paying for imbalances in the wholesale electricity market. The amendments were developed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development for the implementation of the balancing electricity market by providing the balancing market operator Moldelectrica with the necessary tools regarding the establishment of reasonable guarantees for electricity balancing. Currently, the energy balancing guarantee consists of providing a financial guarantee representing the monetary value of the value of the market participants' estimated monthly electricity consumption. In a situation where balancing electricity has a very small share in the consumption structure, at the level of 10-15%, a guarantee in the form of a monetary equivalent of monthly consumption is a significant financial burden for market participants. According to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, the National Energy Regulatory Agency previously approved the Electricity Market Rules. They provide for the signing of a contract for the provision of balancing services by Moldelectrica (transmission system operator), as well as the responsibility of market participants (called parties responsible for balancing) to Moldelectrica for the created imbalance. However, these provisions could not be applied due to the requirement of the Electricity Law, which provides in Article 84 (6) that, when concluding a balancing contract, the party responsible for balancing or the responsible balancing group is required to provide a financial guarantee in an amount not less than the estimated monthly consumption of the balancing party or balancing group. This requirement is difficult to meet because it practically doubles the financial resources needed to carry out the day-to-day activities of market participants and does not add significant value to market rules. In this regard, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development has proposed amending the Electricity Law in order to establish financial guarantees at a reasonable level based on a transparent procedure developed by Moldelectrica and approved by NAER. The relevance of promoting these changes stems from two aspects: The application of the Electricity Market Rules was postponed until January 1, 2022, and then until April 1, 2022 due to some obstacles, among which is the specified requirement to establish guarantees at an unjustifiably high level. In order to facilitate the participation of companies from Ukraine in tenders for the supply of electricity in 2022 in order to diversify energy sources, it is necessary to resolve all problems related to individual contracts for the provision of Moldelectrica balancing services and the responsibility of market participants to Moldelectrica for the created imbalances.// 21.01.2022- InfoMarket.
