EBRD lends €30.8 million to Moldova to link to European electricity grid via Romania
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending €30.8 million to Moldova and its state-owned electricity company Moldelectrica to link the country’s network to that of its European Union neighbour, Romania, by constructing a high-voltage transmission line between the Moldovan city of Balti and the Romanian border.
Moldelectrica, which is implementing the European Union’s Third Energy Package, will also use the loan to rehabilitate its internal electricity transmission network and build a 400 kV (kilovolt) substation at Balti.
The Balti-Suceava project, costing a total of €77 million, is co-funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is also lending €30.8 million. The European Union’s Neighbourhood Investment Platform (NIP) will provide a €15.4 million grant.
The project’s aim is to increase Moldova’s energy security by accelerating the country’s integration with the European grid, ENTSO-E, as well as to strengthen the country’s integration with its European neighbours.
According to the EBRD, more than 80 per cent of electricity consumed in Moldova came historically from the unrecognised breakaway region of Transnistria, along with imports from Ukraine via a grid connecting several former Soviet republics.
Since 2015, Moldova has been working to diversify sources through closer links with Romania, and has one interconnection line to Romania (the Vulcanesti-Issaccea line).
With the start of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, both Moldova and Ukraine quickly synchronised with the European grid. The Balti-Suceava line will further strengthen Moldova’s integration of Moldova with ENTSO-E and increase the country’s energy security.
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