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20 parties have registered in the current election campaign. Many people say it is a too big number for such a small country as Moldova. At the same time, much more parties could take part in the election campaign.

Activists launch Moldova’s first ‘Space Camp’ © Susan Coughtrie

Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire!

Headlines

• "Moldova Azi" information portal is changing its format and editorial content, Centrul pentru Jurnalism Independent, 8 August 2011, 15:19
• Moldovan students queue up to apply for scholarships in Romania, Info-Prim Neo, 4 August 2011, 13:44
• Ukrainian scholarships not very popular in Moldova, Info-Prim Neo, 2 August 2011, 14:58
• Kent Larson: USAID will always support process of Moldova democratization, INFOTAG, 1 August 2011, 13:42
• Parliament sets up new commission - for checking civil servants' property and incomes, INFOTAG, 29 July 2011, 9:00
• Scandal in Moldovan parliament over deputies' relatives, INFOTAG, 29 July 2011, 9:00

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Starting with the 1^st of January, the Moldovan GRES (state regional power station) located in the unrecognized Transnistrian Moldovan Republic and owned by the Russian "Inter RAO UES" has become the main power supplier of Moldova. The contract with MGRES was signed secretly by the Moldovan operator, state company "Energocom", at the end of 2008 and the press found out about it post factum from the declarations made by the Deputy Minister of Economy and Trade, Tudor Copaci. The minister presented it as an important achievement that would ensure energy supply to Moldova and increase its energy security.

Before, within the last three years, over 70% of power input to Moldova had been supplied by Ukraine in the person of the state company "Ukrinterenergo", which, according to Copaci's opinion, was insecure, particularly in the autumn-winter season.

Among other advantages of the new contract, he underlined that the station would supply power to Moldova at least up to the 31^st of March 2010, while the agreement with Ukraine expired in June 2009.

"Moreover, Ukraine limits us in energy consumption, while the station does not. The volume of power delivered to Moldova by MGRES will amount to 200-220 mils kW/hour per month. The price will make up around 5.6-5.8 US cents for 1 kW/hour", said the minister.

Although Copaci refers to diversification of sources of power, this is not what has happened in fact. The buying quantity contracted with the Transnistrian station is exactly the same as the one previously bought from "Ukrinterenergo", which basically pushes Ukraine out of the market, leaving it as an option for "any force majeure circumstance".  

Apparently, the neighboring country did not realize the threat at the beginning. Indeed, within the last years Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly insisted on raising the price for the power supplied to Moldova considering the current ones to be extremely low. Especially bearing in mind that, for instance, in January-October 2008, Moldova consumed 2.8 billion kW/hour of the Ukrainian power (1/3 of total exports) at less than 5 US cents, which was much lower than the prices for Europe.

During the negotiations held in Kiev last year, Moldova engaged itself to buy power in 2009 for the prices established on the Ukrainian internal market, which in the end of 2008 already reached 6.2 US cents for 1 kW/hour. In October, the Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy, Vladimir Lucinicov, declared that Ukraine intended to raise the price for the power supplied to Moldova up to 7.5 US cents to align it to the one applied to the Eastern Europe in 2009. That determined Moldovan authorities to start negotiations with MGRES and sign a contract the station. Especially since the dependence of the south of Odessa Oblast from the Moldovan power network seized together with the construction of power supply lines "Bolgrad-Budzhak-Reni" and "Artsiz-Bolgrad". Thus, Ukraine is no longer concerned that Moldova could stop power supply to the southern part of Odessa Oblast should Ukraine stop power supply to Moldova.

All these have made Moldova turn back to the old main supplier, although the latter is also hard to be trusted. In 2003, when the station was purchased by the Russian-Belgian company "Saint Gidon Invest", the new owner raised the issue of increasing the prices for power supplied to Moldova straight away. In 2005, when the station was re-sold to "Inter RAO UES", the new owner also requested Chisinau to buy power for the price of 4.2 US cents and not 3.8 US cents as before. Consequently, Moldova was affected by a severe crisis just before the winter season due to power cuts and had to start buying Ukrainian power, which at that time was considerably cheaper and made up 2.5 US cents.

Now, Moldova went back to the station and Ukraine understood that it was loosing a very important consumer. The Ukrainian Minister of Fuel and Energy, Yurii Prodan, himself sent a letter to Moldova whereby he proposed to prolong the contract and to supply power for the price of 5.2 and even 4.8 US cents, which was cheaper than the offer made by the Russian supplier. Nevertheless, unlike MGRES, Ukraine gives no guarantee for the contract that would make up at least one year. Thus, Moldova does not agree to such terms and maintains only insignificant technical power flow with the energy system of the neighboring country.

Although the First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Trade of the Republic of Moldova, Igor Dodon, claims that the change of the main supplier has not affected the relations with Ukrainian authorities, this is quite hard to believe. Moldova should have been a bit more diplomatic and diversify the supplies at least by dividing them equally between "Ukrinterenergo" and MGRES. If previously power supply used to depend entirely on Kiev, now it all depends on MGRES. Therefore, should there arise a conflict with Tiraspol or Moscow we do not quite have very good relations with (it is enough to recall the recent Russian embargo on Moldovan wine and agricultural products), Moldova will have to go cap in hand to Kiev again.

***Information: MGRES is one of the biggest power stations in the Eastern Europe. The total capacity of 12 power blocks amounts to 2.5 thousand MW, which, in the Soviet period, supplied power to the whole of Moldova and the south of Ukraine and also exported it to the Balkans. In 2008, only four blocks operated at the station and 95% of the produced power was exported through the Moldovan network to Romania. According to Russian experts, the present technical capacity of the station and the output capacity of power supply lines allow exporting up to 1.2 thou MW of power to the countries of the South-East Europe.