The Isaccea-Vulcănești overhead power line, through which Romania exports electricity to Moldova, has been disconnected on the night of March 23 around 19:00, following attacks on energy infrastructure in southern Ukraine that the power line is connected with, announced energy minister Dorin Junghietu, according to Newsmaker.md.

The power line crosses the territory of Ukraine and ends, on the territory of Moldova, at the MoldGRES power plant in the territory of the separatist region Transnistria.

According to Ukrainian media reports, Odesa was attacked by drones on the night of March 24, and some areas of the city were without power.

According to the Crisis Management Center in Moldova, the line may have been damaged by the shelling of Ukrainian infrastructure. There were no reports of power outages anywhere in Moldova.

A similar interruption during the last winter caused a partial blackout in Moldova, but this time, no impact was reported, thanks to the low consumption. Around 23:00, Moldova was importing the missing electricity from Ukraine. Current consumption was approximately 620 MW, of which 320 MW was domestically generated, approximately 120 MW from Transnistria (MoldGRES), and approximately 300 MW was imported from Ukraine.

According to a statement from the Moldovan Ministry of Energy, teams of the transmission system operators in Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine are collaborating at an operational level to carry out the necessary technical checks and to assess the situation on the ground.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Nataliia Babinska/Dreamstime.com)