Romania's Hidroelectrica steps in and helps Moldova with 100MW

Romanian hydropower company Hidroelectrica will deliver electricity to Moldova under a contract providing 100MW supply over the first 11 days of December, followed by 20MW afterwards, Moldova's state-owned energy trader Energocom announced on its Facebook page.

The volume of electricity purchased under bilateral contracts from Romanian suppliers (OMV Petrom, CE Oltenia and CET Craiova are other suppliers) will thus reach 5,000MWh per day and 5,800MWh during the weekend, according to the company.

Moldova needs some 13,000MWh of electricity per day and can cover from own resources only 20% of this.

Energocom purchased electricity on a daily basis from Romania's day-ahead market, and on some days, part of the demand remains not covered by commercial contracts - being supplied under a special emergency agreement by Romania, at a high price, though. On some days, the deficit covered under the agreement may rise up to 75% of the national consumption.

Moldova lost its electricity suppliers in November when Ukraine became unable to provide electricity as its energy system was damaged by Russian missiles, and the separatist region Transnistria refused to continue supplies citing insufficient gas deliveries from Gazprom.

The Russian company Gazprom indeed cut its deliveries to Moldova at half of the contracted volume, starting November 1.

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