The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending 30 million dollars to ICS Premier Energy Distribution S.A., Moldova’s largest private electricity distribution system operator, to finance its investment program to 2025 while it modernizes, digitalizes and upgrades the distribution grid in the central and southern parts of the country, including the capital Chisinau.

This loan follows on from Chisinau’s becoming the first Moldovan city to join the Bank’s flagship 5 billion dollars urban sustainability program, EBRD Green Cities, to plan to improve its sustainability. In its Green City Action Plan, drawn up in 2020, Chisinau identified air pollution and climate mitigation as priority environmental challenges.

Modernizing the regional grid – through the EBRD’s third Green Cities project in energy and the second in Europe – will help address both, saving more than 2,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year and contributing to the reduction of losses by 21 per cent, through replacing older assets with more energy efficient ones. Over half the investment program will focus on Chisinau and its surrounding area.

The loan to help Premier Energy Distribution transform a conventional distribution grid into a digital smart grid, ensuring security of supply and improving services to end users, is in two tranches. 22 million dollars will cover Premier Energy Distribution’s investment program through 2024. A further 8 million dollars will cover its 2025 program.

The project will be co-financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), also lending 30 million dollars.

Premier Energy Distribution is an existing client of the EBRD and is majority owned by Emma Capital Limited, a limited liability company registered in Cyprus. It covers about 70 per cent of Moldova’s territory.