More Transparent Tariffs – an Additional Solution for Energy Security
Automatically translated summary. The full text is available in Romanian.
The energy sector includes natural monopoly components, where a single network delivers electricity or natural gas to consumers. Because dominant operators could raise tariffs abusively, the state regulates them. This article looks at how Moldova applies this regulation and why competition in its energy market remains hard to build.
Like Western countries, Moldova separates infrastructure from supply services, so that all operators have equal, non-discriminatory access to networks and thus to the market. In theory, this should enable competition in both the wholesale market, between suppliers and producers, and the retail market, where final consumers buy from suppliers. Separate pre-set tariffs apply to transport and transit infrastructure and to distribution networks, and they must not distort competition.
Although these principles are transposed into national legislation, a limited number of suppliers and energy sources makes a competitive market hard to create. Natural gas consumption depends entirely on a single source, while 80% of energy consumption comes from two sources: suppliers from Ukraine and the Moldovan power plant (MGRES) in the Transnistrian region.
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