The consumption of natural gas in the Republic of Moldova decreased last year by 20% due to very high prices and the transition to alternative fuels in the country’s thermal power plants. The chance of returning the consumption to the initial values can only come from the energy producers.
“In 2022, gas consumption in the country has decreased by 20% due to very high prices and the switch to alternative fuels. For the gas year 2023-2024, we must restore consumption, to an estimated volume of 940 million cubic meters of gas. This depends on the heating plants operating on gas”, said Vadim Ceban, president of the Board of Directors of the Moldovagaz company, during the “Regional Approach Chișinău” conference organized by Energynomics.
Moldovagaz has 18,000 industrial consumers, but the first 50 of them represent 70% of the total consumption. At the same time, out of the total of 770,000 consumers served by the company, 340,000 are located in Chisinau, and the majority are residential customers. The municipality of Chisinau consumes half of the gas supplied in the Republic of Moldova.
According to Ceban, the industrial sector has contracted a lot and shows no signs of returning to the gas demand of a year ago. In addition, canneries, sugar and cement factories have either opted for other natural gas suppliers or are using biomass for their energy needs.
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Also, the gas company does expect no recovery of consumption from residential and public consumers either, as they are forced to reduce their consumption due to high prices and budget constraints. In fact, some household consumers have abandoned the use of natural gas and invested in heat pumps, and there is better availability of financing at the country level to increase energy efficiency and switch from gas to electricity by installing solar panels.
“This is a closed economic cycle for us. Volume recovery will not come from the industry, but from the thermal power plants. Residential customers, due to high tariffs, consume less, and many have switched to heat pumps. In the public sector we see a 20% decrease in consumption due to budget constraints, so there is an administrative reduction in consumption, more than an effect of some energy efficiency measures,” said Ceban.
The conference “Regional Approach Chișinău” was organized by Energynomics with the support of our partners Huawei, Siemens Energy, Transgaz.