Moldova: EU project champions energy saving by encouraging consumers to follow their neighbours in energy efficiency
July 25, 2022

Moldova: EU project champions energy saving by encouraging consumers to follow their neighbours in energy efficiency


Moldovans could save 65 million lei per year on energy, a behavioural experiment carried out by the EU-funded ‘Addressing the impacts of the energy crisis in the Republic of Moldova’ programme has found.

The experiment first began in 2019 in partnership with electricity supplier Premier Energy and continued during the COVID-19 pandemic on a smaller scale. In February this year, the experiment was scaled up nationwide, with about 300,000 customers with high consumption receiving letters from the energy supplier urging them to take simple actions that would lead to energy savings. 

“Consumers received statistics, which compared their data with those of more energy efficient consumers in their community, as well as tips and solutions for saving energy. In addition, Premier Energy’s monthly bill has been improved and contains more useful information to reduce consumption,” said Dumitru Vasilescu, Policy Specialist at UNDP Moldova, which is implementing the project.

At the end of the experiment, it was found that those consumers who received letters comparing their data to more efficient neighbours reduced their consumption, while those who did not ended up spending more.

“The exercise demonstrates that our domestic customers, who received letters on their level of electricity consumption, managed to achieve an average decrease of 1.33% in energy consumption, i.e. 2.64 kWh/month. If this savings system was maintained for all household customers at country level for one year, the total savings for the annual electricity bill could exceed 65 million lei,” said Jose Luis Gomez Pascual, Country Manager of Premier Energy Moldova.

A recent UNDP analysis shows that 60% of Moldova’s population lives in energy poverty, spending more than 10% of their budgets on energy bills. The ‘Addressing the impacts of the energy crisis in the Republic of Moldova’ programme will support the acceleration of the transition towards green energy by promoting energy efficiency and renewable solutions provided by the EU Green Deal.  

With a budget of €10 million allocated by the European Union, the programme will launch a campaign to replace old appliances with new and energy-efficient ones, finance the installation of photovoltaic panels in households and several hospitals, as well as the replacement of district heating systems in many blocks of flats with much more efficient horizontal distribution systems.

The programme also envisages support for the transposition of the EU Third Energy Package into both primary and secondary legislation, as well as a series of Directives and Regulations of “Clean Energy for all Europeans” package, which addresses the energy performance of buildings, renewable energy, energy efficiency, good governance, and the design of the electricity market design.

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