Energy Minister Dorin Junghietu said that the Government of the Republic of Moldova cannot economically justify purchasing electricity from the Cuciurgan Power Plant under current natural gas market conditions.
Junghietu explained that the Cuciurgan plant consumes about 2.5 to 3 million cubic meters of gas per day to cover its electricity production needs. He stressed that the authorities know how the plant receives this gas, referring to the supply scheme in the Transnistrian region.
The minister noted that if the Moldovan government bought natural gas at market prices and supplied it to the plant for electricity generation, the final electricity cost would become uncompetitive.
“When we include processing, operating, and transmission costs, this mechanism becomes economically inefficient,” Junghietu said.
He also highlighted the plant’s low efficiency, explaining that producing one megawatt of electricity requires the energy equivalent of about three megawatts of gas. As a result, electricity generated at Cuciurgan would cost significantly more than the current average market price.