Moldova is experiencing the deepest energy crisis since its independence, and it is not ruled out that towns or villages will be completely cut off from electricity - Andrei Spinu.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development said this in an interview with the Romanian agency AGERPRES. "I think I'm not exaggerating if I say that this is the deepest energy crisis that our country has experienced since independence, because at the moment, especially after the Russian attacks on Ukraine, besides the gas supply, which is not stable, we had problems with the electricity supply. For two days we did not have enough electricity under commercial contracts, and at the moment we are relying on an emergency contract between Moldelectrica and Transelectrica, under which we get some power. Unfortunately, there are fewer short-term solutions in the energy sector. Personally, I regret that Moldova did not take more courageous steps to diversify its partners in the energy field in the past," Andrei Spinu said. At the same time, according to him, the authorities are doing everything possible to save money and starting from the state institutions, citizens and economic agents, they urge to save both gas and electricity. In September, gas consumption in the country decreased by 37%. In October, in the first 23 days, electricity consumption decreased by 16%. In addition, in the short term, state-owned Energocom will be able to participate in regional and international markets for the purchase of energy, gas and electricity. "If we talk about electricity, the state company Energocom is already registered on OPCOM, the Romanian electricity exchange, and I think that in the coming days it will be able to buy electricity from this source," Deputy Prime Minister stressed. Speaking about the possibility of imposing more serious restrictions on the population in addition to the current restrictions on electricity consumption, he said that the authorities are considering all scenarios, including rolling blackouts, in order to keep the balance of the power system. "What we are doing at the moment is to reduce street lighting, decorative lighting, advertising lighting to reduce electricity consumption, but we do not exclude the fact that we will find ourselves in a situation where we completely disconnect cities or villages from electricity at certain hours to reduce consumption," said Andrei Spinu. Referring to the gas, he noted that the authorities have already managed to constitute a gas stock of almost 90 million cubic meters for this winter and will continue to buy gas. Deputy Premier said that the authorities want to avoid dependence on one source of energy supplies in the long run and have been looking for other partners to provide our country with energy resources for a year. "We are negotiating with Azerbaijan; we are negotiating with Romania, with the European Commission and other suppliers who could help us. And as far as this winter is concerned, the government has approved a plan to prepare for the heating season, and we have more than 30 measures that we carry out and do everything necessary to ensure that the country will not suffer in this period," he said. While speaking about the possibility of worsening the crisis, Andrei Spinu said that, of course, in the current geopolitical context in which we are, it is obvious that things could be even worse than they are now. "If before October 10, things were somehow okay, at least in the electricity sector, then after the massive missile attacks on Ukraine by the Russian Federation, everything changed dramatically. Ukraine has stopped exporting electricity, both to Moldova and to Romania, Poland, and Slovakia, and we don't know what the Kremlin's plans are for other infrastructure targets. We do not know if they (the Russians) will attack other infrastructure, we do not know if they will decide to completely cut off gas supplies, including the transit of this gas through Ukraine. There are elements of this war, which does not take place on the territory of Moldova, but in a way through certain hybrid actions, and we think that this situation in the energy sector can be classified as a hybrid action against Moldova, obviously, in this context, things can become even more complicated," Andrei Spinu stressed. //27.10.2022 - InfoMarket.
