Moldova and USAID will sign on April 30 a Memorandum of Agreement on the use of part of the grant funds from the total package of $300 million for the construction of a new power line with Romania.
This was announced by Energy Minister Viсtor Parlicov, summing up the results of his recent visit to the United States. He recalled that earlier the United States approved a new package of gratuitous assistance worth $300 million to support the energy sector. At the same time, $80 million from this package was allocated to pay compensation for energy resources to vulnerable segments of the population of Moldova, and $220 million will be used to invest in the country’s energy infrastructure, including the construction of a new power line between Moldova and Romania. Tentatively, it's about the Straseni-Gutinas power line. But the Romanian side has not yet officially approved this settlement for the construction of power lines on its territory. Victor Parlicov clarified that a memorandum of agreement providing for the use of part of the US grant funds from the total package of $300 million for the construction of the 3rd new power line with Romania will be signed in Chisinau on April 30. On the American side, the document will be signed by Deputy Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Isobel Coleman. The Minister of Energy expressed confidence that after the completion of the projects for the construction of 3 new power lines, which will improve the integration of our country with the Romanian energy system and ENTSO-E, Moldova will become part of the common European energy market in 2029, even before becoming an official member of EU. According to Victor Parlicov, this is quite possible, taking into account the help of its partners. As previously reported, work is already underway on the construction of a 400 kV transmission line from Vulcanesti to Chisinau, and a tender has been announced to select a company that will design and build a 400 kV transmission line from Balti to Suceava. The new lines will greatly contribute to increasing the capacity to transmit electricity from Romania to Moldova and vice versa. Herewith, it was decided to build another, 3rd interconnection to better connect the power grids of Moldova and Romania. It is planned that, after the completion of several new power lines with Romania, Moldova will significantly strengthen the security of electricity supply and will be able to receive electricity even if the entire energy infrastructure on the left bank of the Dniester cannot work and the connecting lines with Ukraine are destroyed by Russia. “These connections have another meaning: we will not only be able to import the necessary volumes of energy from Romania, but we will also become an attractive destination for the production and export of electricity, including renewable energy. We can produce and supply electricity abroad from renewable sources, in particular solar,” the head of the Ministry of Energy said earlier. According to him, in addition, after the end of the war in Ukraine, Moldova can become a bridge between two large energy markets - Romanian and Ukrainian, a hub through which electricity from Ukraine will be supplied to Romania and other EU countries, and from the European Union and Romania, on the contrary, to Ukraine. // 19.04.2024 — InfoMarket.
