“Energy Integration Across the Prut at Any Cost”

Christian RUSSU

Romania’s energy expansion across the Prut will continue even to the detriment of Moldova’s economic benefits

A week ago, the media circulated statements by Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu about his desire to buy the Moldovan electricity supplier RED Nord, which supplies Moldova’s northern regions. The motive seemed to be generous, as if the neighbors had excessive production and such changes would bring lower prices to our consumers. Obviously, these words could have pleased the public, as traditionally tariffs for the northern regions are slightly higher than in the center and south of the republic. Bucharest’s plans were later explained by our energy minister Victor Parlicov, who confirmed the intention to sell RED Nord and FEE Nord. The official believes that private operators will be able to manage the assets more efficiently, while the sale itself will eliminate the existing corruption schemes in these state-owned enterprises. It is obvious that the stories about bad public administration and schemes are only to divert the attention. Otherwise, the authorities would not have brought to life the Voronin-era monopoly monsters like Metalferos. In fact, the transfer of national assets in the energy sector is part of the agreed plans between Chisinau and Bucharest. Parlicov himself confirms this, speaking about the inevitable unification of our country with the EU energy market by 2029. At the same time, the Balti-Suceava high-voltage grid will be built not for abstract integration into the EU or to reduce tariffs for consumers in the north, but solely to help Romanian companies seize the entire backbone infrastructure of Moldova. I have repeatedly written that Bucharest’s strategic goal is to gain control over the interstate power transmission line Balti-Novodnestrovsk. It is considered as a source of balancing electricity for the north-eastern part of Romania and an important link in the chain of the unified Romanian energy ring. After the destruction of the Burshtyn TPP in Ukraine and the reduction of the energy exchange potential on the Romanian-Ukrainian border, the importance of this task has only increased. Ciolacu spoke about achieving a balance when discussing the goal of expansion into Moldova. According to the plan, half a million Moldovan consumers will help develop the surplus of expensive solar and wind generation produced at certain time intervals in the Romanian grid. Our authorities will then lose any control over the distribution networks and through the regulator will be forced to gradually raise electricity tariffs to the European average. The ambitions of Romanian politicians and businessmen concern not only the north of Moldova. Curious things are developing around the capital’s heat supplier Termoelectrica too, a sign of the pre-sale preparation of the facility. For example, a ban on installing individual heating systems in multi-store buildings under construction is already in place, which will further expand the company’s customer base. Earlier, Termoelectrica was relieved of the burden of historical gas debts to Moldovagaz by transferring them to Energocom’s balance sheet. At the Bucharest forum this week, organized on the occasion of the Partnership for Transatlantic Energy and Climate Cooperation meeting, Ciolacu reiterated the importance of supporting Moldova in the face of threats from the conflict in Ukraine. This time, however, the Romanian prime minister’s statements came against a less optimistic backdrop, as the week-long heat wave had plunged Romania’s energy sector into its worst crisis in years. The neighboring country has had difficulties in meeting its own electricity needs this year from the very beginning. On 1 January, at the request of the European Commission, the last working unit of the coal-fired power plant in Isalnita, built in the 1960s, was shut down. And although Marcel Ciolacu assured a year and a half ago, in the heat of political struggle, that he would never allow this power plant to be shut down and “turned into a pile of scrap metal”, it happened under him. At that time, about 300 MW of capacity immediately fell out of Romanian generation. Shortages in the country’s power system have been persistent since April due to hydrological drought, with the country’s reservoirs only 80% full this year. Then part of the power generation in Cernavoda had to be shut down. The July heat wave led to an increase in electricity consumption by a third, exceeding 8,000 MW, after which Romania’s energy system started to fail. There were supply grid failures and blackouts in some neighborhoods. Romanian officials assured that there would be no blackout in the country, but urged the population to save energy, for instance, to use washing machines only at night. However, even imports from neighboring countries did not help. The coal-fired power plants in Isalnita and Paroseni, which had been shut down, were restarted in a hurry. Meanwhile, experts actively criticized the authorities for Bucharest’s failure to achieve any significant results in renewing the electricity generation infrastructure during its post-revolutionary history, while losing half of the previously available capacity. The promised new gas-fueled power plants never appeared, and the trendy “green energy” as a “lifesaver” became only a source of additional troubles. On 19 July, the first unit of the Romanian nuclear power plant at Cernavoda was shut down as a result of an accident. After 700 MW of nuclear generation fell off the grid, imports had to increase sharply from 1,300 MW to 2,000 MW. It diminished only a few hours later, and that was due to the almost doubling of hydroelectric generation. In other words, Romanian power engineers repeated the Ukrainian experience when, despite the shortage of water resources, they released the accumulated reserves from reservoirs to reduce the energy deficit. Notice that Moldova was hardly influenced by any of these problems: there were only recommendations to limit consumption during peak hours due to a fourfold (!) increase in the cost of electricity purchased on the Romanian exchange. It is good that now this volume is very small – only 8% of all planned supplies for July. Therefore, nobody switched off Moldovan consumers, which once again proved the stability of the national energy system built in Soviet times. Of course, Moldelectrica had to stop commercial exchanges with Ukraine for nine days due to increased domestic consumption, which did not allow it to meet Ukrainian demands as well. However, we cannot accuse our power engineers of ignoring the needs of our neighbors. In recent months, Moldova has repeatedly been among the main suppliers of emergency aid to Ukraine, as well as providing transit through its territory from the Novodnestrovsk hydroelectric power plant and from Romania to Odesa oblast. What consequences Moldova would have faced if Romania had a larger share in our energy balance is scary to imagine. By 15 July, electricity on the Romanian exchange turned out to be the most expensive in the entire European Union: four times more expensive than in France and ten times more expensive than in Finland. If Andrei Spinu’s scheme of autumn 2022, when the entire right bank was covered by supplies of Romanian companies, were in effect now, Moldovan consumers would undoubtedly be among the first to be cut off. However, even this clear example of the risks and threats arising from the loss of energy sovereignty in favor of Romania is unlikely to change the position and plans of the ruling regime.