Electricity Imports from Ukraine Have Declined Significantly in Recent Years

During the bilateral meeting of Presidents Maia Sandu and Volodymtr Zelensky in Chisinau, the issue of Ukrainian energy companies' return to the electricity supply market of the Republic of Moldova was discussed. Statistics show that the electricity imports volume by the Republic of Moldova from Ukraine has been steadily declining in recent years, mold-street.com writes. According to a statement by the Presidential Administration in Kiev, Zelensky said during the meeting that the Republic of Moldova is an important partner for Ukraine and that Kiev is open to deeper relations. “The relationship between Ukraine and Moldova has enormous potential, and today we must focus our efforts on using this potential,” Zelensky said. The heads of state discussed the return of Ukrainian energy companies to the power supply market of the Republic of Moldova. In fact, Ukrainian companies, especially those that are part of the DTEK group of the Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, are still present on the electricity market, but the volumes of supplied energy are very small. For example, if in 2019 the Republic of Moldova imported 643.8 million kWh of electricity from Ukraine, then in 2020 imports decreased by about four times, to 166.6 million kWh. Moreover, in the first three months of this year, the import of energy resources from Ukraine has completely stopped. From April 1, 2021, they were resumed and gradually increased from 20.9 million kWh in April to almost 40 million kWh in July, reaching more than 10% of our country's electricity demand. However, supplies fell in August due to a significant increase in energy costs in the Ukrainian market, forcing some Moldovan companies to stop importing electricity from Ukrainian suppliers.